World Cup 2014: Italy forward ready to immobilise England

Ciro Immobile had a hand in all five goals in Italy's final friendly

Michael Lintorn looks at the rapid rise of Ciro Immobile and the importance of his understanding with Lorenzo Insigne...

After all the guffawing at Italy's ineptitude in drawing at home to Luxembourg, a 5-3 victory over Brazilian side Fluminense in their final friendly ensured that they finish their World Cup warm-ups with an identical record to England: a win and two draws.

The hero of the Estadio Raulino de Oliveira triumph was unquestionably Ciro Immobile, who broke his international duck at the third attempt with a hat-trick and set the other two goals up for Lorenzo Insigne.

It has been an exceptional 2013/14 for the 24-year-old, beyond anything that he could have anticipated following a disappointing first Serie A season a year earlier with Genoa.

A move to Torino saw the striker top Serie A's Capocannoniere standings with 22 goals as well as breaking into the Italy squad and securing a transfer to Borussia Dortmund for 15.5 million, a fee that appeared a bargain before and may prove an absolute steal by the end of the World Cup.

Immobile's destruction of the club second in Brazil's Serie A has earned him adulation back home, including his christening as "Ciro d'Italia" in a nod to the bike race, and is sure to trigger a debate as to whether usual starter Mario Balotelli should be benched in his favour against England.

The future Bundesliga marksman is 85.084/1 to be tournament top scorer having once been backed at 450.0, while he is 5.69/2 to out-fire all of his Italy colleagues. He is 9.08/1 to break the deadlock against the Three Lions.

Of course, if Italy adopt a 4-3-1-2 formation as they did against Republic of Ireland, both could be accommodated, but the other reason why the Azzurri prospered against Fluminense having toiled in their two prior friendlies was the introduction of wide forwards in a 4-3-3 setup.

Napoli left flanksman Insigne netted twice from Immobile assists and planted a free-kick square on the hat-trick-grabber's head, though their compatibility was no surprise because they first combined in Serie B with Pescara in 2011/12.

Indeed, it is possible that three players who were scheming together under Zdenek Zeman in the second tier little over two years ago will be reunited against England as Paris St-Germain playmaker Marco Verratti was also a part of that Serie B-topping team.