C3: France 0 - 2 Italy - 17/06/08

[highburyboi]

I think that france performance in this euro08 is very poor, since from the 1st match against romania, I think that strikers are quite inexperienced except henry, which he alones cant do anything coz soccer require teamwork. France are too rely on zidane to provide attacks and leads the team, without him, the whole teams looks like very messy when attacks. Vieria's injuries is also another vital blow for france, he is a players that can control the team, he cn attack and defend as well. Toulalan is not a attacking midfielder and so does makelel, that make the midfield to focus on only defends, this two players seldom go foward.

I would think that if instead of toulalan, flamini is another gd choice, he can provide some attacks sometimes, in the striker part, it's the first time benzema and gomis participate in such major competition, I hoped that he learnt something out of this tourament. Anelka is a disappointing one, I expect him to play much better as he had more experience, but his performance in romania is under expectation and this meant that leaving trezeguet out is a wrong decision, I supposed he can do better than Anelka, at least trezeguet had score more than 20 goals in the season.

Another problem for france is their left and right backs, abidal is not that gd, sagnol performance is not consistent. Evra and clerc lacks of opportunities to perform. Clichy and sagna is not included in the squad and I am very suprised coz both had a good season, sagna is injured, so maybe next time. Clichy is supposed to be in the squad!

I think france need a new manager.!

[D-Kin]

De Rossi is phenomenal, he really is. It's a shame because he's so underrated due to the fact that most of his good work goes unnoticed but the fact is he's a world class midfielder.

As for the game, well I thought we had our fair share of luck, but at the same time I felt we played better than France did. We created a lot more chances than they did and always looked fairly comfortable when defendind their attacks.

I feel for Toni a bit, he worked extremely hard last night and had enough efforts on goal but it still won't go in for him. Spain better watch out...

Buffon deserves a special mention, he looked solid all game and make a fantastic save from Benzema in the second half. He makes such a difference.

All in all a very good result along with a decent performance, if we can get past Spain I reckon we'll go on and win it.

[Forza_Roma]

As i said before the game...Italy needed some luck. And thankfully the Soccer Gods helped Italy. They created a lot of scoring chances and it paid off. Ribery getting injured played a massive part in the game. Toni was brilliant in controlling that long ball on the penalty....but he's too anxious in trying to score. He needs a tap in to get the monkey off his back.

DDR...the future captain of Roma and a true leader. Enough said.

But, Buffon is not getting the credit he deserves...he's the only reason Italy have made it this far.

[dukeofdavinci]

£100 that Italy will reach the EC final.

easy now.we got out alive, lets try to breath wth our lungs before going straight out of the hospital.spain still is far bigger threat as we are now in a handicapped position.but thats for another day.

we have the players but not the coach, lets see what goes and comes next few days.