So it's little wonder that the 28-year-old English-based striker says the All Whites have nothing to fear from the Azzurri when they meet in Nelspruit on Sunday as the Kiwis' unlikely World Cup adventure continues.

After their sensational 1-1 draw in their opening group game against Slovakia, another good result against the 2006 winners would give the All Whites a great chance of reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time with their final group game to come against tough South American team Paraguay.

Killen, who was one of the All Whites' best players in the 1-1 draw with Slovakia in Rustenberg, also scored twice when New Zealand last met Italy a year ago here in South Africa in a warm-up game ahead of the Confederations Cup.

On that occasion New Zealand led on three occasions only to go down 4-3 so Killen knows the All Whites have the weapons to trouble the reigning world champion on Sunday.

"We respect their team but you can't go out there and fear them," Killen said.

"We will just go about it the same way [we did against Slovakia] and we want to go out there and win."

Killen was also less than impressed with Italy's opening match at this World Cup in which the Azzurri drew 1-1 with Paraguay - which has left all four teams locked on one point in the group after the first round of matches.

"There wasn't anything to scare us too much in that game," he said of Italy's first-up performance.

"But we know they are world champions and they have got some great players."

"However we are coming off a great result [against Slovakia] and usually we seem to turn up to these [big] competitions and get pumped in the first game and that is us written off [for the tournament]."

"But I think people can see that now we are here [to compete] and that first game was a great feeling but we are not getting carried away."