"Italy won the last World Cup and you don't achieve that by accident," said the Liverpool striker.
"They are a team we should respect and given their past record they are the favourites.
"But although they may be favourites on paper we have absolutely no fear of them. We beat them in a recent friendly and now we've got the chance to do the same in a competitive game.
"Spain are playing well, we are winning easily and we have a lot of alternatives.
"We expect to have the ball for long periods against Italy but we will have to be patient against them."