INVERCLYDE is set to go World Cup crazy as the huge Italian community gear up for wild celebrations.

Hundreds of Italian-Scots living here will pack into the Circolo Italiano club in Greenock and other pubs around the town tomorrow night as the Azzurri take on France.

As the fever grows, the Italian connection promise to recreate the spirit of '82 if they lift the famous trophy.

The last time Italy lifted the World Cup, their flag-waving Inverclyde army brought the streets to a standstill as a convoy of cars tooting their horns drove round the town.

Italy's local fan-in-chief Raffaele Chessa said: `I hope if we win we will be doing that again. We drove all the way McInroy's Point, Gourock, and back in cars. I won't touch a drop of drink so I can drive the car.` The restaurant owner is predicting a 2-1 victory for his home country and reckons starman Del Piero will be the hero on the night.

He said: `Italy have played brilliant football and we are also the ladies favourite team because we have the best looking players.` Raffaele, 62, who runs Aldo's in West Blackhall Street, Greenock, is originally from Sardinia.

Grandad Raffaele came to visit a friend in Greenock when he was 22-years-old and is still here.

Italian immigrants flooded into Greenock from the 1920s onwards en route to America, but many stayed here instead.

Fellow Italian Ivana Mangoine, 31, moved from Milan to Gourock to work in IBM in 1999 and married a local man.

IBM is bussing Ivana and other Italian and French employees up to Glasgow Green to watch the game on a big screen.

She said: `There has been no fighting in IBM because we are both nations of lovers not fighters.` IBM is also home to a pocket of French Resistance to the Italian onslaught.

Parisian Gregg Moutongo-Black, 25, has lived in Greenock for two years.

He said: `I think it will be 2-0 to France and our best player is going to be Zinedine Zidane.` Staff and customers at the Lynedoch Bar in Greenock have been supporting Italy since the beginning of the World Cup.

They have been rooting for the Azzurri and added to the atmosphere by decorating the pub with Italian flags, wearing specially made T-shirts and serving up pizza and pasta.

Co-owner John O'Neill said: `It's been really great. Now with them being in the final it is an added incentive. I think it will be 1-0 to Italy.`