IRENE, South Africa — Italy rolled out the excuses Friday for its 1-0 loss to Egypt, with the World Cup holders playing down the importance of the Confederations Cup and pointing to injuries.

"We knew beforehand that this Confederations Cup is a test to prepare for the World Cup and that there would be experiments," Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said. "This isn't the biggest tournament. Sure it would be nice to win, but it's not at the level of a World Cup or European Championship."

The loss to Egypt was shaped by a failed experiment in attack, with coach Marcello Lippi testing Giuseppe Rossi at center forward, surrounded by Vincenzo Iaquinta and Fabio Quagliarella.

Yet until Luca Toni came off the bench in the second half, the attack looked so stagnant that the Gazzetta dello Sport labeled the Italian players "mummies."

"It's senseless to massacre the coach and team now. If things don't go well, Lippi has the insight to change," Buffon said. "We can always go back to what we did before. There's still a year before the World Cup."

Buffon also pointed to injuries to key players Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Gattuso. Cannavaro missed Italy's laborious 3-1 win over the United States with a right calf injury and Gattuso only returned from knee surgery in AC Milan's final match of the Serie A season.

Antonio Di Natale missed the tournament with a long-term injury.

"We have a number of players returning from injury, guys that have been out for four or five months," Buffon said. "But 14 or 15 of us are in great form. Italy is capable of beating Brazil, Spain and Brazil again. Yes, not just once, but twice."

Italy now faces a delicate match with Brazil on Sunday to conclude group play. Brazil leads the group with six points, while Italy and Egypt have three each and the United States has zero.

Spain is almost certain to win Group A, and will be the likely opponent if Italy gets through to the semifinals.

"The most important thing to me is that we at least show we're capable of playing with these big teams," Buffon said of the Brazil game. "Whether we win, draw or lose, or advance or not, is less important. Now if we lose by a large margin, that would mean we're very far behind schedule, but I don't think that will happen."

Lippi has held on tight to the players he won the World Cup with — most notably Buffon, Cannavaro, Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo.

"We're not satisfied over what happened three years ago," Buffon said. "I personally am still probably angrier than anyone over the shootout loss to Spain at last year's Euros, after only allowing one shot on goal."

Lippi resigned after the World Cup, then returned after the loss to Spain at Euro 2008 under Roberto Donadoni.

"This 4-3-3 is not new," Buffon said of Italy's formation. "We've played this way for the last three years, even under Donadoni, and we've had alternating results. But when we're not 100 percent we risk struggling.

"Italy has never played champagne (overly exciting) football. We leave that for Barcelona and Brazil, teams that have always played that way. We're more methodical."