Italy, Uruguay seek Confederations Cup consolation

Uruguay will start with a distinct physical advantage, their 2-1 loss to Brazil having taken place a full 24 hours before Italy's stamina-sapping 7-6 penalty shoot-out defeat by Spain in Fortaleza on Thursday.

After each suffering late heartbreak in the Confederations Cup semi-finals, Italy and Uruguay will attempt to rouse their weary bodies for Sunday's third-place play-off in steamy Salvador Italy coach Cesare Prandelli was particularly concerned about the lack of recovery time available to his players following a 120-minute slog amid the cloying humidity of Estadio Castelao. He even proposed a change to the format of the tournament, to allow teams more time to recover, while centre-back Giorgio Chiellini told Rai Sport he was "struggling to breathe" at the end of the game. To compound matters, Sunday's match at Arena Fonte Nova will start at 13:00 local time (1600GMT), when temperatures in tropical Salvador are forecast to hit 26 degrees Celsius with 75 percent humidity. Given their exertions against Spain, captain Gianluigi Buffon has admitted that the quick turnaround before the Uruguay encounter represents a difficult challenge. "The final would have been nice. You don't get to play at the Maracana every day. But if we had got there, we might have had to play on all fours," said the Juventus goalkeeper. "Now we will give our all against Uruguay, because our holidays have not started yet." The Spain game appears to have taken a heavy toll on Prandelli's squad, with reports in the Italian media suggesting Chiellini, Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Daniele De Rossi and Andrea Barzagli could all miss Sunday's match due to either injury or fatigue.