The Official Azzurri thread 2

[RomaShield27]

Join the , good laugh!

[DCGweez]

[RomaShield27]

[RomaShield27]

The Azzurri at Auschwitz:

[p_maldini_3]

remember when italy used to have nesta, cannavaro and maldini in one line-up?

[Bagg10]

[juventino_italiano]

[DCGweez]

My guess before the Newspapers start printing them. My only reservation is Nocerino given Prandelli's history with Montelivo.

------------------- Buffon
-------Ogbonna DDR. Chielini
Maggio---------------------------- Balzaretti
------- Nocerino. Motta. Pirlo
--- Cassano
----------------- Balo

[RomaShield27]

I like it, except Balzaretti could be a bit vulnerable given he's the only player on the left-hand side of the pitch...

[juventino_italiano]

http://football-italia.net/19668/platin ... -cant-walk

[Bagg10]

Marchisio is going to start.

[RomaShield27]

http://www.thescore.ie/live-republic-of ... 9-Jun2012/

Look at that Italia team:

Italy: Pagliuca, Tassotti, Costacurta, Baresi, Maldini, Donadoni, D Baggio, Albertini, Evani, R Baggio, Signori.


------------

Join the , good laugh!

[RomaShield27]

DE ROSSI: "SIAMO FUORI DA SCANDALI"
http://www.sportmediaset.mediaset.it/sp ... dali.shtml
08/06/12
"Non bisogna mischiare la nazionale a qualche cosa di gigantesco nel quale noi non c'entriamo. Non voglio essere in mezzo a qualche contestazione per qualche cosa che non ho fatto". E' la richiesta di De Rossi a poche ore dall'esordio all'Europeo con la Spagna. Il centrocampista della Roma si trasforma in difensore della patria e annuncia che, con la Roja, "al 99,9% giocherò come centrale difensivo, sarò il collante tra i reparti".

DDR saying that he's 99.9% sure he'll play as a centre-back for Italy against Spain on Sunday.

[RomaShield27]

[DavidP]

lol

[forzaitalia]

Haha that's awesome

[Bagg10]

Sunday June 10 2012

Italy player ratings v Spain
By Football Italia staff

Hmm, how to stop the World and European champions in their tracks? With police raids at your training camp, a slew of injuries, a heavy defeat in your last warm up game and a last minute change of formation of course! Rating and slating the Azzurri performances after an impressive group opener in Gdansk.

Italy player ratings v Spain

Gigi Buffon: 7

Almost lobbed by Fernando Torres late on, but otherwise did the little he had to do well, saving a Cesc Fabregas shot and dashing out to nick the ball off Torres' toes. Confident.

Leonardo Bonucci: 5

Important block from Fabregas capped off a decent first half, but struggled as the game went on, hacking down Andres Iniesta. It was his over-hit pass which led to the Spanish equaliser. Erratic.

Daniele De Rossi: 8

An end of level boss. Just when La Furia Roja appeared to have tricked their way past everyobstacle standing between them and the Italian goal DDR intervened - again and again and again. Immense.

Giorgio Chiellini: 6

Important interceptions, silly fouls, rampaging runs upfield, the quintessential Chiello performance. Effervescent.

Christian Maggio: 6

Faded somewhat after a sprightly start, but looked much more comfortable in his natural role as a wingback. Atoned for his errors against Russia. Competent.

Thiago Motta: 6.5

Combined graft with guile and did the simple things well – short passes, tackles, positional play. Almost became an unlikely hero when his header was parried by Iker Casillas on the verge of half time. Dutiful.

Andrea Pirlo: 7

One contribution of note but what a contribution it was, gliding past Sergio Busquets and skimming a pass into Antonio Di Natale's path for the opening goal. Elegant.

Claudio Marchisio: 6

Not quite his usual self, but got through a lot of work and twice forced Casillas into action, once in the first half and once in the second after an awesome slalom upfield in spite of his aching legs. Energetic.

Emanuele Giaccherini: 5

Making your international debut in an unfamiliar position, against the World Champions and four years after playing in Serie C2, can't be easy, and Giaccherini certainly didn't disgrace himself. Sadly though losing Fabregas for the equaliser is what we'll remember it for, and it could cost him his place. Unfortunate.

Mario Balotelli: 4.5

Started well enough but bolstered the arguments of those who consider him a liability by collecting a needless booking and dilly dallying when through on goal. Little doubt he deserved to be substituted. Careless.

Antonio Cassano: 7

Went close twice in the first half, roamed the channels and created chances for others. His substitution surely more to do with lack of fitness than dissatisfaction with his performance. Difficult to believe his career was at threat six months ago. Reborn.

Antonio Di Natale: 7.5

Four years after the agony of his missed penalty against Spain in Vienna and two years after his international career had seemingly ended in Johannesburg, Toto got his revenge, stroking a smooth finish past Casillas with his first touch. May have won himself a starting place. Redeemed.

Sebastian Giovinco: 6

Not particularly prominent after replacing Cassano but showed his class with a lovely clipped pass to set up a chance for Di Natale. Promising

Ratings by: Scott Fleming

http://www.football-italia.net/19817/it ... gs-v-spain

[RomaShield27]

How good was DDR? Immense throughout. His reading and anticipation of the game is second to none. Safe to say without him Italia lose, and lose badly.

Balotelli should never been a starter, he's just not worth it. Di Natale should start but in this system Italia will be very lightweight up front.

[red]

Pretty good showing from Italy.

They were excellent up to the point Spain scored, but struggled quite badly after that.

Cassano-Balotelli allowed Italy to keep the ball and the held it up well to relieve pressure. Unsuprisingly, they didn't offer much penetration, since neither is really interesting in running in behind a defence.

Midfield functioned pretty well, with Motta the standout. Managing to avoid being completely dominated in this area of the pitch when Spain were playing about 43 midfielders gave Italy the platform to really compete in the game.

The back three did well, even if there were a few understandable errors caused by not having played together before and De Rossi making the sort of mistakes a midfielder is always likely to make when playing in defence (not that De Rossi didn't have a good game).

Goal was fairly preventable. Giaccherini, ideally, would have tracked Fabregas better, but it's a lot to ask of a player isn't a defender at all. The space that the ball was played into should not, to my mind, exist when you are playing with three CBs. De Rossi was possibly ball-watching slightly when Chiellini stepped out to close Silva, so wasn't shuffling back into a sweeper type position to provide cover. Tough stuff to do for a midfielder, though.

Think Italy's problems late in the game came about due to the midfield tiring after working hard to compete despite being outnumbered through the game, combined with Torres attack the space behind the defence with Spain's midfielders relatively free to pick passes due to Italy's fatigue. For that reason, I think that Nocerino probably needed to come on 10-15 minutes earlier than he did.

The slow pitch helped Italy quite a lot, I think, as it made it really tough for Spain to play with any real tempo.

Promising signs for Italy, but tough to learn much about Italy's capabilities of doing something in the tournament since playing Spain is so different to playing anyone else.

[RomaShield27]