Wednesday, 18th June 2008
Waking up!
Ok. I just woke up and came to realise that the first part of the nightmare has finished and Italy have qualified for the Euro championships quarter finals. They did it their way, with a lot of suffering.
A lot had been said about the possibility of the Dutch playing foul and letting Romania win but the Dutch are neither the Swedes nor the Danes who in 2004 ‘agreed’ to draw their match to keep Italy out.
Tonight we’ll know if it will be Russia or Sweden who will join Spain from Group D, to complete the list of the 8 teams in the next stage of the European Championships.
Portugal, Holland and Spain have produced the best football of the tournament so far. I have a feeling that it will be one of them who will eventually lift the trophy on June 29th.
Van Basten’s team is my favourite to win it. The biggest surprise has been Turkey. Their match against the Czechs was the one I enjoyed most. The last 15 minutes were the essence of sport and football. The Czechs and Cech will not forget those minutes easily.
Croatia confirmed that they should be treated with respect. They didn’t only eliminate England in the qualifying phase. They also showed that they’re a force to be taken seriously.
Germany have not impressed me yet. Had they been in Group C, they would have ended up suffering a similar fate as France. The latter have proved to be the biggest let down of the tournament. Luck was not on their side either. In their match against Italy, they lost one of their key players, Franck Ribéry to injury. They also had to play the most of the match with 10 players, following the sending off of Abidal.
A lot can be said about Italy, much of which has been written already.
My initial comments are that yes Italy were blessed by having had their first match against Holland and had to suffer against Romania. If one had to compare and contrast the first Italian match and the one against France the biggest difference is the ‘team spirit’. This could be due to the pain they had to go through. One other key contributor was the fact that Roberto Donadoni (who has been criticised and will keep being criticised for ever given that in Italy there are over 58 million candidates for the role of Commissario Tecnico della Nazionale) utilised 19 from the 23 players’ contingent.
The Quarter Final stage will reserve some interesting matches and all football lovers will have plenty to enjoy. Portugal vs Germany, Croatia vs Turkey, Italy vs Spain and Holland vs (Sweden/Russia) all come with a promise of action, thrill and beautiful football.
May the best win.
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Comments
Why wish to have the luck the Italians get?
I think you're quite short in memory, during the last two qualifing games, if Israel had not done England a favour by beating Russia, your last game against Croatia would have been a mere friendly. Like England's last two pathetic friendlies again USA and Trinidad & Tobago - wow what an opposition).
In the last qualifying match, England needed 2 out of 3 results against an already qualified team (Croatia). Having come from 0-2 down to 2-2, England were not up to keep even that result. Well I do not call that bad luck, but mere stupidity.
Your comments are welcome!
We 'Italian' supporters enjoy good football. We also tend to get involved more than the 'English' supporters who tend to take a passive role because the Italian team tend to get involved in the major football events at a more frequent rate then the English. They also tend to have their participation go that step further then those who created the game.
As such 'we' rarely can be as priviledged, and have an observer status, as 'English' supporters can be.
As to the luck of the Italians, WHERE IS THIS LUCK? You wanted Holland to loose so Italy would be out? Is that what you wanted? Like 4 years ago? You make me laugh. So Italy are lucky beacause Holland played fairly and won their game. Please english suppporters find another excuse, and by the way did you buy the Spanish flag now? It's gonna cost you after that of Holland, Romania and France.
Dream on Dave, dream on but remember that our dream is your nightmare!!!
I read your feeling, your heart is with Spain and Rumania and Holland and France and God knows who else but your money, that's different, your money must be with ITALY.
You mention luck, that's fine with me since luck favours THE BRAVE.
@Jes
Go back to sleep as next time you wake up it will be to the tune of POPOPOPOOO POPOPOPOPOPOPOPPOPOPOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOI CAMPIONI D'EUROPA
What's he on about ? Though this was the blog of Jes not ABC's.
HRH ???This guy must be living in the old days of The BRITISH EMPIRE.
Its not the first time and will definitely not be the last that you guys must sit out and watch the proceedings on telly sipping tea and biscuits or should I say a beer !!!
If the antics you refer to are Italy qualifying from the group of death - wtih all odds against them after having conceded a controversial goal (to say the least) and denied a perfectly legitimate one, with a useless yellow card afforded to Pirlo, with the French still vying for revenge of a world cup final defeat and Zidane's shameful exit, and Donadoni having already used 19 players - there must be a hand of God in all of this not simply antics.
Beware the deja vu situations or shall we call it An Italian Job, starting off so badly and then carrying off the honours. Toni has yet to score an allowed goal - just like Paolo Rossi in 1982, when he ended up as top scorer of the tournament. BRING ON SPAIN and HOLLAND or RUSSIA and anyone else who dares. To the rest (including the inventing scientists) we say HAPPY VIEWING.
I agree with Joseph Caruana, but like you, temptation to respond was too great. I do not agree that the supporters you're referring to "are sitting back looking on in fond amusement at the antics of the kiddies".
Unluckily enough, I've got loads of this type of supporters working with me and I have noticed that their happy smiling faces from 10th June to 17th June, have turned quite redish (in envy) and unhappy. I don't know why this happened, maybe its getting hotter?
Well, some of them might have also seen yesterday's match between RUSSIA and Sweden, and whilst "sitting back", they might have thought "what would have happened if HER MAJESTY'S TEAM" was playing?
I'm sorry ABC, but it's just a matter of SOUR GRAPES!!!
@ all the other respondents
Did you read the Domenech's putting the blame on the referee? Oh man, how I wish that after this debacle, he will not lose his job, as in this soccer business serious world, we need someone smart enough to go and tell jokes in press conferences and ridicule the French pride with his statements. FFF please keep him in his job?
No need to comment. Silence is Golden
OK, now you can start dumping on me ....
The italians were rightly worried after what happened to them 4 years ago (Sweden-Denmark 2-2 kumbinazzjoni!)
Regarding the azzuri supporters who might have stayed silent this week, there is a saying...silence is golden. Seems that other supporters whom they support was not in Euro 2008 were not silent....
So there you are... Was wondering what might have happened to you having not seen any posts for over a week.
Losing to the Dutch and scraping past against the inept gypsies and you were nowhere to be seen. Then a win against the poor French and you come crawling out from the woodwork. Typical azzurri supporter, nowhere to be seen when the going gets tough, so I'm wrong to expect too much...
Anyhow well done for the win, wish you guys all the best! Go for it and make it happen like 2006!
Although I'm an Italy supporter, I've got my doubts on what would have Italy done if they were in Holland's situation.
Yesterday Lady Luck stroke in 90 minutes what would she should have done against Romania, even though Italy were the most hungry team for the win.
On Romania's side, yesterday it was a confirmation of their non-football (like Greece had done in 2004). This team merits to go out, as to lose against a reserve Holland team (mind you Van Basten changed 9 players and NOT 4 or 5 like he said in the press conference), knowing that a win would have surely qualified them.
I'm sorry for all those english supporters that wanted a different result yesterday. You have to stick to hear Italy's anthem once more. It's a lesson that when you need to qualify, you qualify and not needing 2 results from 3 and get the odd third one (2-3).