Park Doo-ik entered World Cup folklore when he scored the only goal at Middlesbrough’s old Ayresome Park ground to send North Korea through to the quarter-finals and Italy home to a reception of tomatoes and rotten fruit.

Despite South Korea’s undisguised jealously of the North’s achievement in becoming the only Asian side ever to reach the last eight of a World Cup, that has not stopped them trying to use that game to score a few psychological points over Italy.

‘Again 1966’ has been spelt out in huge letters on the seats behind one of the goals.

This battlecry greeted the Italians when they trained in the Daejeon World Cup stadium ahead of tomorrow’s second-round game, but Trapattoni was non-plussed.

He feels a match 36 years ago on Teesside will have little or no bearing on events tomorrow.

‘‘I know there is a sign on the pitch, but that is a statistic in the history books,’’ he said dismissively.

"This Italian team of today has got an enormous will to win."

Christian Vieri echoed his manager’s sentiments and while he paid tribute to Korea, he claimed Italy were optimistic they would win.

‘‘The Korean team is not just a team that runs a lot and they know how to play football too and they’re also playing in front of their own fans,’’ he said.

‘‘But we’re confident of victory and we have a strong mentality going into this game.’’

Rather than worry about the ghosts of ’66, Trapattoni is concentrating on the Korea of 2002.

He knows full well what the atmosphere will be like tomorrow, but then this will hardly be the first time Italy have played in front of partisan home fans.

He is confident that tomorrow’s referee, Ecuadorian Byron Moreno, will not be influenced by Korea’s fanatical Red Devils.

‘‘We’re playing away and away games are like this,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not like playing at home and we’re used to that.

‘‘We’re not going to cry about it. There will be millions watching on television and I trust the professionalism of the referee and of all the players involved.

"It will be fine.’’

The big issue as far as the Italian media are concerned is not what happened in 1966 or even Korea’s incredibly vocal fans, but rather will Alessandro Del Piero play?

Del Piero, who has yet to start during this World Cup, pressed his claims when he came off the bench to score the late equaliser against Mexico which saw Italy scrape through to the last 16.

The Juventus star is vying with Filippo Inzaghi for the right to partner Vieri, but the coy Trapattoni was giving little away.

‘‘This is not about one individual and who should play and who shouldn’t. This is about the whole team and picking the right 11 players - not just one,’’ he said.

Alessandro Nesta will have a late fitness test before the game and the Lazio centre-half has missed training for the last three days because of a bruised foot.

Nesta said: ‘‘My right foot is injured and it’s about 50/50 whether or not I will play in the game.’’

The loss of Nesta would be a big blow because Parma defender Fabio Cannavaro is suspended and if he is ruled out, Juventus’ Mark Iuliano will probably take his place.