Italy coach Antonio Conte and captain Gianluigi Buffon looked forward on Friday (1st July) to their quarter-final clash against Germany.

SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Antonio Conte, Italy coach:

"A month ago most people wouldn't have thought that this game could be competitive and rightly so, considering the difference in quality between the two teams. But today we're here with a quarter-final at stake. And we're here deservedly, we won our group, we beat a great Spanish team, we know it will be really hard tomorrow, but we're ready. We'll have to be good enough to understand what we need to do in order to reverse the mis-match that this game seems at first glance. But we have worked hard, and nobody is defeated before the match."

SOUNDBITE: (Italian) Gianluigi Buffon, Italy goalkeeper:

"We all know it will be a really hard match. It will be the sort of match that takes everything out of you from both a physical and emotional point of view. Having said that, we are aware of this, and this is already important when preparing for a match sonot be taken by surprise."