Spain-Italy Quarterfinal Euro 2008 [R] part 2

[dmar]

Aquilani is still too timid for the international scene and it showed, he is more than capable to add creativity and he knows how to get dangerous in attack both by long range shooting and incursions in the penalty area. None of that was there. No reasons to be too hard. it was the second time he played as a starter, he needs to get experience.

Aquilani was great when Roma played against Real Madrid in the CL this year. I expected more of him. I don't know if he was too timid or was told to defend.

With Xavi in the first half we tried to keep it safe with easy (sometimes backwards) passes, even it they weren't exactly defense openers. Aimpless posession has been our way of defending during the qualifying.

If you keep this tactical wisdom you're going to win it all. talent wise you're the best of the 4 remaining teams

Yeah, but we are the phisically weakest, except for Torres, Ramos and Senna.

People should credit Aragonés a bit. Some of his choices (Güiza???) are questionable, but he has somehow convinced the players of the need to be tactically minded. I guess the loss against France in Germany brought that about, too.

[squidward123]

talent wise you're the best of the 4 remaining teams.

sick of hearing this. spain are always the most talented team out of anyone.

[The Third Tenor]

22 June 2008


SPAIN 0
ITALY 0



As expected, this match was run in midfield. Italy owned a lot of it, even though Spain passed the ball around to themselves about 1000x in the center of the pitch before proceeding to try and penetrate through the middle, which never worked thus resorting to shots from distance. I suppose to the unseasoned eye this looks like Spain was on the offense and Italy on the defense, but it's actually not true. Italy isn't stupid to allow a very technical midfield of Spain lure them out of position so that the speedy Spanish forwards can exploit holes. If anyone is, they deserve to be punished. As unruly the stereotype that Italians only defend, it is also not true that the Spanish cannot defend. In fact, both defenses were equally up to the task. Spain defended in numbers when Italy attacked. There was one difference, Italy's attack was more efficient. Spain had 16 goes at net, but only 8 on target, while Italy only had 6 goes on net but all on target.

I think the mistake of believing Spain was more attacking was becuase of two things:

1 - They passed the ball around to themselves a lot in the center field
2 - They kicked a lot of long balls at the net

The truth is that BOTH teams defended deep when the opposition was in their end.

With 'chances' for either side. Cassano, spent much of the match
playing for himself, but managed to beat Ramos before curling a left foot
cross to the centre circle but Toni's header bounced off Marchena to
safety. Silva's long range shot, one of many by the Spanish, flew a
couple of feet wide of Buffon's left post. Italy finally got a break
from a referee when Silva theatrically dived into the box following a
mistimed tackle by Grosso outside it.


We had to wait an hour for the first genuine chance. De Rossi lobbed a
delightful pass over the Spanish defence after he had a shot charged
down, Camoranesi flicked the ball towards Toni, his shot was blocked by
Casillas, Puyol and Marchena challenged the striker for the rebound but
they all missed, Camoranesi shot on the turn but Casillas made a
fantastic save with his feet. Buffon almost literally handed Spain the
lead. Senna latched onto a loose ball and let rip from 30 yards, Buffon
caught the ball then let it slip from his grasp, it bounced against the
inside of the right post and he safely recovered. The useless Luca Toni
attempted an overhead kick with Grosso better placed.


In extra time Silva rifled a loose ball just wide of Buffon's right
post. Zambrotta put in a cross from the right and fortunately for Italy
this time Toni didn't connect, Di Natale did, Casillas made a fantastic
one handed save. Cazorla should have won it in the last minute. Running
on fellow substitute Guiza's reverse pass he dragged a shot/cross wide
with Villa just failing to connect.


Penalty Shoot-Out



Villa - Driven into the bottom left corner
Grosso - Whipped inside the left post
Cazorla - Another low penalty inside the left post
De Rossi - The fourth straight penalty to the left, incredible save by
Casillas
Senna - Down the middle into the roof of the net
Camoranesi - The first penalty to find the right corner
Guiza - Low and right of centre, Buffon saves
Di Natale - Almost a carbon copy of Guiza's penalty with the same result
Fabregas - Bottom right, Buffon goes the wrong way. Goodnight Vienna

[Gandalf The Red]

What a relief that Italy is out. They play the most boring, unattractive soccer of any top-shelf team in the world. Their team is fully of diving pretty boys. I will never, ever, watch Italy play another full match unless they are playing USA. Congratulations Spain! Italy, please go home and stay away from my conscious for as long as possible.

I fully agree:cool:

[sardus_pater]

oh this time you are right we were boring and unattractive in the quarter finals but still reasonably effective, not so in the previous game.

But, you should give spain credits for us playing boring and unattractive. it was not only donadoni's choice to play conservative. their midfield shut most of our build up attempts and all we were left was trying to bypass it with long range passing. With Pirlo there things could have been different.

[sardus_pater]

sick of hearing this. spain are always the most talented team out of anyone.

And germany is talented as well but IMHO a bit less than Spain. :)

Where germany historically has the edge is attitude and that is many times a decisive factor. But spain's attitude was great vs italy, a bit of a more heedless approach could have turned lethal for them.

[sardus_pater]

Aquilani was great when Roma played against Real Madrid in the CL this year. I expected more of him. I don't know if he was too timid or was told to defend.

well, probably both. He never took any risk.

Yeah, but we are the phisically weakest, except for Torres, Ramos and Senna.

but they are quick. a less cautious approach to your midfield will lead to a good number of lost balls and quick assisting to villa and torres in open spaces.

People should credit Aragonés a bit. Some of his choices (Güiza???) are questionable, but he has somehow convinced the players of the need to be tactically minded. I guess the loss against France in Germany brought that about, too.

credits to Aragonés. :cool:

[NicktheGreek]

Maybe those fans love the tactical game...;)

Congrats to Spain on reaching the 1st semi-final since 1984, finally they had a little bit of fortune & good nerves!

Despite Pirlo's absence, Donadoni played way too devensively in my eyes (you could get the impression he was going for the pk's) and made the big mistake of nominating Di Natale (I knew he wouldn't manage to control his nerves after being booed) instead of Del Piero for the pk's!


Buona notte.

I really would like to know why Del Piero wasn't among the 5 Italians to take a PK. What was Donadoni thinking?

A boring match with a subpar ref.

[NicktheGreek]

22 June 2008


SPAIN 0
ITALY 0



As expected, this match was run in midfield. Italy owned a lot of it, even though Spain passed the ball around to themselves about 1000x in the center of the pitch before proceeding to try and penetrate through the middle, which never worked thus resorting to shots from distance. I suppose to the unseasoned eye this looks like Spain was on the offense and Italy on the defense, but it's actually not true. Italy isn't stupid to allow a very technical midfield of Spain lure them out of position so that the speedy Spanish forwards can exploit holes. If anyone is, they deserve to be punished. As unruly the stereotype that Italians only defend, it is also not true that the Spanish cannot defend. In fact, both defenses were equally up to the task. Spain defended in numbers when Italy attacked. There was one difference, Italy's attack was more efficient. Spain had 16 goes at net, but only 8 on target, while Italy only had 6 goes on net but all on target.

I think the mistake of believing Spain was more attacking was becuase of two things:

1 - They passed the ball around to themselves a lot in the center field
2 - They kicked a lot of long balls at the net

The truth is that BOTH teams defended deep when the opposition was in their end.

With 'chances' for either side. Cassano, spent much of the match
playing for himself, but managed to beat Ramos before curling a left foot
cross to the centre circle but Toni's header bounced off Marchena to
safety. Silva's long range shot, one of many by the Spanish, flew a
couple of feet wide of Buffon's left post. Italy finally got a break
from a referee when Silva theatrically dived into the box following a
mistimed tackle by Grosso outside it.


We had to wait an hour for the first genuine chance. De Rossi lobbed a
delightful pass over the Spanish defence after he had a shot charged
down, Camoranesi flicked the ball towards Toni, his shot was blocked by
Casillas, Puyol and Marchena challenged the striker for the rebound but
they all missed, Camoranesi shot on the turn but Casillas made a
fantastic save with his feet. Buffon almost literally handed Spain the
lead. Senna latched onto a loose ball and let rip from 30 yards, Buffon
caught the ball then let it slip from his grasp, it bounced against the
inside of the right post and he safely recovered. The useless Luca Toni
attempted an overhead kick with Grosso better placed.


In extra time Silva rifled a loose ball just wide of Buffon's right
post. Zambrotta put in a cross from the right and fortunately for Italy
this time Toni didn't connect, Di Natale did, Casillas made a fantastic
one handed save. Cazorla should have won it in the last minute. Running
on fellow substitute Guiza's reverse pass he dragged a shot/cross wide
with Villa just failing to connect.


Penalty Shoot-Out



Villa - Driven into the bottom left corner
Grosso - Whipped inside the left post
Cazorla - Another low penalty inside the left post
De Rossi - The fourth straight penalty to the left, incredible save by
Casillas
Senna - Down the middle into the roof of the net
Camoranesi - The first penalty to find the right corner
Guiza - Low and right of centre, Buffon saves
Di Natale - Almost a carbon copy of Guiza's penalty with the same result
Fabregas - Bottom right, Buffon goes the wrong way. Goodnight Vienna

Exceptional post!!!!

[JumpinJackFlash]

Del Piero was supposed to be 5th, but the azzurri were already out by then. Donadoni was definitely high on something when he decided that Di Natale should take a penalty in front of thousands of Spanish fans screaming abuse at him though. Could tell he was going to miss it from the expression on his face.

[GringoTex]

Italy is a disgrace to the beautiful game. Their tactics are cynical, their defensive MO is to rely on the ref not calling fouls in the penalty box, and they dive dive dive. If everybody played like this Italian team does, basketball would be the most popular sport in the world.

Thank gawd Italy is gone from this tournament.

[uclacarlos]

sick of hearing this. spain are always the most talented team out of anyone.
We're also sick of hearing that we're chronic underachievers.

I mean... We have underachieved, sure. But more often than not -- especially at the WC -- we've had SHIT luck. In '94 the blatant pk non-call vs. Italy. In '98 Nigeria rolling over and letting Paraguay win after we lost a game on a fluke goalie blunder. '02... robbed. Even the Koreans admit this.

[Juve_passion redded]

Both teams were truly astonishing.
Italy was so great at defence and Spain showed some impressive great passes.

Both showed awesome quarter-final.

[benztown]

Both teams were truly astonishing.
Italy was so great at defence and Spain showed some impressive great passes.

Both showed awesome quarter-final.

:confused:

Could I have some of those drugs please?

[Gandalf The Red]

:confused:

Could I have some of those drugs please?

lol I know but its always more exciting when YOUR team is involved

You just make sure you put the Turks down:mad:

[TheGrimSweeper]

Italy is a disgrace to the beautiful game. Their tactics are cynical, their defensive MO is to rely on the ref not calling fouls in the penalty box, and they dive dive dive. If everybody played like this Italian team does, basketball would be the most popular sport in the world.

Thank gawd Italy is gone from this tournament.

Seriously? Lean futbol.

Spain dove just as much as Italy, Germany dives that Portugal/Germany game was disgraceful. Everyone does it, sadly its just part of the game now.

Italy's midfield was out of sync without Pirlo and they could not keep possession for long periods for the life of them. Despite that they still had just as many good chances as Spain. Spain with all its possession had very few good chances in the match, couldn't break the Italian D and was forced for long range efforts.

The amount of anti-Italy posts is actually laughable. They could have won this game 5-0 and people would still find a way to cut them up just cause its Italy.

Spain deserved winners in the match however.

[joegrav]

Do you think people just randomly picked Italy to start hating on, or what? I don't think it's a coincidence that people came to this conclusion, pal.

Hell, I used to try to root for the country of my ancestors, in World Cup 98, Euro 2000, '02, and even the start of World Cup '06, but I just couldn't do it because I was always filled with such rage at the way they play the game. Now I don't even bother trying to root for them. F*** them. I'm glad they're out.

Yes, every team dives a little bit, but the Italians elevate it to an art form. I didn't see Spain lying down for 10 minutes to stop play and reset their defense.

[pippomo]

What a relief that Italy is out. They play the most boring, unattractive soccer of any top-shelf team in the world. Their team is fully of diving pretty boys. I will never, ever, watch Italy play another full match unless they are playing USA. Congratulations Spain! Italy, please go home and stay away from my conscious for as long as possible.
I hope we stay away from mighty USA, and the load of morons american fans which support that NT.
Anyway, I can't understand what many people here are saying..
I mean, you don't like it? Don't watch it.
I am more thrilled in seeing Italy vs whoever than a whoever vs. whoever.
It'a abotu being a fan. It's football. You can go to circus if you don't like it.
It's about a hundred and more years of passion and of competition. I don't give a ******** about what neutral observers think.
The game of football is NOT for neutral observer.
I'm sure spanish people enjoyed yesterday match more than the beautyful Spain-France of 2 years ago...
Once again there is the proof that somebody just can't get what football is.
Spain vs. Italy was a clear case of a match with a big difference in team strenght. Spain was strong, had all his better players, was confident with his play. Italy was weak. Had 3 of his best players out for various reasons. Plus another couple out for being completely out of condition. The whole f the team was completely out of condition. If Italy tried to play an attackinf football ( which sometimes can do ) would have been SLAUGHTERED. As an Italian (not some italo-american, mister Gravellese ), I'm proud my team tried to do its best ( where is your team mister gravellese, which is your team mister Gravellese, I can see you support a little too many teams ). They fought, they were in the match until the end. They kept Spain with just a couple of dangerous shot ( and still not so dangerous ). We were the underdogs and we were reasonably near getting away with a win.

[Gandalf The Red]

I hope we stay away from mighty USA, and the load of morons american fans which support that NT.
Anyway, I can't understand what many people here are saying..
I mean, you don't like it? Don't watch it.
I am more thrilled in seeing Italy vs whoever than a whoever vs. whoever.
It'a abotu being a fan. It's football. You can go to circus if you don't like it.
It's about a hundred and more years of passion and of competition. I don't give a ******** about what neutral observers think.
The game of football is NOT for neutral observer.
I'm sure spanish people enjoyed yesterday match more than the beautyful Spain-France of 2 years ago...
Once again there is the proof that somebody just can't get what football is.
Spain vs. Italy was a clear case of a match with a big difference in team strenght. Spain was strong, had all his better players, was confident with his play. Italy was weak. Had 3 of his best players out for various reasons. Plus another couple out for being completely out of condition. The whole f the team was completely out of condition. If Italy tried to play an attackinf football ( which sometimes can do ) would have been SLAUGHTERED. As an Italian (not some italo-american, mister Gravellese ), I'm proud my team tried to do its best ( where is your team mister gravellese, which is your team mister Gravellese, I can see you support a little too many teams ). They fought, they were in the match until the end. They kept Spain with just a couple of dangerous shot ( and still not so dangerous ). We were the underdogs and we were reasonably near getting away with a win.

just admit your team was cowardly


cheers Gandalf:cool:

[pippomo]

No I admit my team is weak.
And we played as such.
Can you get it?