[FNU]

ZÜRICH

The omens will undoubtedly favour Italy when the world champions meet Romania in their second Group C fixture in Zurich.
• Italy have won ten and lost only two of their 14 previous meetings with Romania, including a victory in their only encounter on the élite European stage at UEFA EURO 2000™.
• If Romania coach Victor Piţurcă would prefer not to dwell on statistics supporting Italy's status as favourites, he might also choose to forget the last time he faced Italy counterpart Roberto Donadoni on the football pitch, when his FC Steaua Bucureşti side were swept aside by Donadoni's AC Milan in a 4-0 defeat in the 1989 European Champion Clubs' Cup final.
• Italy won the teams' UEFA EURO 2000™ quarter-final in Brussels 2-0, Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi scoring against a Romania side who lost captain Gheorghe Hagi to a red card on his 125th and final appearance for his country. It was the last game Romania had played at a major competition prior to UEFA EURO 2008™.
• The teams for that game in Brussels on 24 June 2000 were:
Italy: Francesco Toldo, Mark Iuliano, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Paolo Maldini, Stefano Fiore, Antonio Conte, Demetrio Albertini, Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Totti, Filippo Inzaghi.
Romania: Bogdan Stelea, Liviu Ciobotariu, Iulian Filipescu, Constantin Gâlcă, Adrian Mutu, Dorinel Munteanu, Viorel Moldovan, Gheorghe Hagi, Cristian Chivu, Florentin Petre, Miodrag Belodedici.
• Italy's Alessandro Del Piero and Romania pair Ioan Ganea and Ioan Lupescu all featured as substitutes.
• Italy won the sides' three subsequent encounters, starting with home and away successes in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying when Inzaghi inflicted further punishment on the Romania defence.
• After scoring the opener in a 3-0 victory in Milan in October 2000 – when Marco Delvecchio and Totti also found the net – Inzaghi got both goals in Italy's 2-0 win in the return in Bucharest in March 2001.
• Italy also prevailed 1-0 through a goal from substitute Marco Di Vaio when the teams met in a friendly in Ancona on 16 November 2003.
• The starting lineups that day were:
Italy: Francesco Toldo, Christian Panucci, Fabio Cannavaro, Matteo Ferrari, Massimo Oddo, Simone Perrotta, Damiano Tommasi, Franceso Totti, Gianluca Zambrotta, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Bazzani.
Romania: Bogdan Lobonţ, Flavius Stoican, Adrian Iencsi, Mirel Radoi, Rǎzvan Raţ, Florentin Dumitru, Daniel Pancu, Dorinel Munteanu, Nicolae Mitea, Florin Bratu, Adrian Mutu.
• Among the substitutes that day were Italy's Massimo Ambrosini and Andrea Pirlo and Romania's Nicolae Dicǎ and Ciprian Marica.
• Romania's most recent win against Italy came in a March 1989 friendly in Sibiu. Ioan Sabău struck the only goal of a game in which Donadoni played.
• Their only other victory against the Azzurri was in qualifying for the 1984 UEFA European Championship where Laszlo Bölöni's effort earned a 1-0 home win which helped Romania qualify for the finals.
• Besides tasting defeat against Donadoni's Milan in the European Cup final, Piţurcă was also on the losing side with Steaua against two other Italian clubs: AS Roma in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round and Genoa CFC in the 1991/92 UEFA Cup third round.
• Romania captain Cristian Chivu and vice-captain Adrian Mutu both play for Italian clubs, the former with FC Internazionale Milano and the latter with ACF Fiorentina.
• Chivu spent three-and-a-half years with AS Roma prior to joining Inter in July 2007. His team-mates at Inter include Italian international defender Marco Materazzi, while at Roma he played with Daniele De Rossi, Christian Panucci, Max Tonetto and Totti.
• Mutu has worn the colours of five different Italian clubs: Inter, Hellas-Verona FC, Parma FC, Juventus and Fiorentina. He partnered Italy striker Luca Toni in the Fiorentina attack in 2006/07 and his current Viola team-mates include Italy pair Riccardo Montolivo and Franco Semioli.
• Mutu has played with plenty of Italian internationals during his time in Serie A: Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Del Piero, Gianluca Zambrotta (with Juventus); Alberto Gilardino, Camoranesi, Massimo Oddo (with Verona), Daniele Bonera, Gilardino (with Parma); Panucci (with Inter).
• Midfielder Paul Codrea is the third Romanian international playing in Italy at AC Siena. He has also played for Genoa, US Città di Palermo and Torino FC.
• Defender Cosmin Contra spent the 2001/02 season with Milan while goalkeeper Bogdan Lobonţ had a spell with Fiorentina in 2006.
• Italy forward Tommaso Rocchi struck twice as S.S. Lazio came from behind to beat FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti 3-1 in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie in Romania last August. Dinamo had taken the lead through Romanian international Florin Bratu but eventually succumbed 4-2 on aggregate.
• Italy have a positive recent memory of the Letzigrund Stadion in Zurich after defeating fellow UEFA EURO 2008™ finalists Portugal 3-1 there on 6 February this year.
• Italy's best performance in the UEFA European Championship came in 1968 when they beat Yugoslavia to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy. They were runners-up in 2000 and semi-finalists in 1988 with a team featuring Donadoni himself.
• Romania's best performance in three previous UEFA European Championship finals appearances was in 2000 when they reached the quarter-finals before losing to Italy.
• This is the 13th edition of the UEFA European Championship and the eighth that features a final tournament with a group phase.

http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tourname...695/index.html



Must win for both teams, but mostly Italy after losing their first game.

[ToonUSA]

A draw suits Romania nicely if we're all being honest.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by ToonUSA

A draw suits Romania nicely if we're all being honest.

i don't think so. we all put our hopes in the last game against Holland, but i'm not sure we can win that. i say we have to win against italy...

in the first game we obtained a good result, but let's be honest our game in attack sucked (i hope it was because of the stress). we looked like Dacia Mioveni , very good in defense but always kicking the ball forward without any vision of the game. i hope we change this 7-2-1 sistem...i sincerely think this was the most ugly and boring game at this euro.

Italy will be forced to attack us and this time we must have courage and play a good counter-attack game that can bring us the 3 points. i'm optimistic, i say 2-0 for Romania

[Amsteldam]

When it rains it pours, Materazzi injured, might not play against Romania:

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=730880


.

[Johannes]

Originally Posted by Amsteldam

When it rains it pours, Materazzi injured, might not play against Romania:

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=730880


.

I don't think Donadoni would have started with him against Romania even if he was fit.. I hope he does play against France, that would give this game even more edge

[forza_azzurri]

Originally Posted by Amsteldam

When it rains it pours, Materazzi injured, might not play against Romania:

http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=730880


.

That's a blessing ......as a matter of fact I think it was Gatusso who purposely injured him.

[DaveyGorgeous]

F*** Matrix, he was arguably the worst person for us out there on the pitch. Keep him on the bench, injury or not.

[Boian]

In my opinion Romania should be pleased with a tie against Italy. Italians will definitely try to win this game, and I think they will leave space for counterattack. I definitely dont want seeing Romania playing an open game, italians are better, individually.
In '89 it was Gullit, van Basten and Rijkaard who beat Steaua.

[SONICMASD]

Originally Posted by FNU

ZÜRICH

The omens will undoubtedly favour Italy when the world champions meet Romania in their second Group C fixture in Zurich.
• Italy have won ten and lost only two of their 14 previous meetings with Romania, including a victory in their only encounter on the élite European stage at UEFA EURO 2000™.
• If Romania coach Victor Piţurcă would prefer not to dwell on statistics supporting Italy's status as favourites, he might also choose to forget the last time he faced Italy counterpart Roberto Donadoni on the football pitch, when his FC Steaua Bucureşti side were swept aside by Donadoni's AC Milan in a 4-0 defeat in the 1989 European Champion Clubs' Cup final.
• Italy won the teams' UEFA EURO 2000™ quarter-final in Brussels 2-0, Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi scoring against a Romania side who lost captain Gheorghe Hagi to a red card on his 125th and final appearance for his country. It was the last game Romania had played at a major competition prior to UEFA EURO 2008™.
• The teams for that game in Brussels on 24 June 2000 were:
Italy: Francesco Toldo, Mark Iuliano, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Paolo Maldini, Stefano Fiore, Antonio Conte, Demetrio Albertini, Gianluca Zambrotta, Francesco Totti, Filippo Inzaghi.
Romania: Bogdan Stelea, Liviu Ciobotariu, Iulian Filipescu, Constantin Gâlcă, Adrian Mutu, Dorinel Munteanu, Viorel Moldovan, Gheorghe Hagi, Cristian Chivu, Florentin Petre, Miodrag Belodedici.
• Italy's Alessandro Del Piero and Romania pair Ioan Ganea and Ioan Lupescu all featured as substitutes.
• Italy won the sides' three subsequent encounters, starting with home and away successes in 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying when Inzaghi inflicted further punishment on the Romania defence.
• After scoring the opener in a 3-0 victory in Milan in October 2000 – when Marco Delvecchio and Totti also found the net – Inzaghi got both goals in Italy's 2-0 win in the return in Bucharest in March 2001.
• Italy also prevailed 1-0 through a goal from substitute Marco Di Vaio when the teams met in a friendly in Ancona on 16 November 2003.
• The starting lineups that day were:
Italy: Francesco Toldo, Christian Panucci, Fabio Cannavaro, Matteo Ferrari, Massimo Oddo, Simone Perrotta, Damiano Tommasi, Franceso Totti, Gianluca Zambrotta, Antonio Cassano, Fabio Bazzani.
Romania: Bogdan Lobonţ, Flavius Stoican, Adrian Iencsi, Mirel Radoi, Rǎzvan Raţ, Florentin Dumitru, Daniel Pancu, Dorinel Munteanu, Nicolae Mitea, Florin Bratu, Adrian Mutu.
• Among the substitutes that day were Italy's Massimo Ambrosini and Andrea Pirlo and Romania's Nicolae Dicǎ and Ciprian Marica.
• Romania's most recent win against Italy came in a March 1989 friendly in Sibiu. Ioan Sabău struck the only goal of a game in which Donadoni played.
• Their only other victory against the Azzurri was in qualifying for the 1984 UEFA European Championship where Laszlo Bölöni's effort earned a 1-0 home win which helped Romania qualify for the finals.
• Besides tasting defeat against Donadoni's Milan in the European Cup final, Piţurcă was also on the losing side with Steaua against two other Italian clubs: AS Roma in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round and Genoa CFC in the 1991/92 UEFA Cup third round.
• Romania captain Cristian Chivu and vice-captain Adrian Mutu both play for Italian clubs, the former with FC Internazionale Milano and the latter with ACF Fiorentina.
• Chivu spent three-and-a-half years with AS Roma prior to joining Inter in July 2007. His team-mates at Inter include Italian international defender Marco Materazzi, while at Roma he played with Daniele De Rossi, Christian Panucci, Max Tonetto and Totti.
• Mutu has worn the colours of five different Italian clubs: Inter, Hellas-Verona FC, Parma FC, Juventus and Fiorentina. He partnered Italy striker Luca Toni in the Fiorentina attack in 2006/07 and his current Viola team-mates include Italy pair Riccardo Montolivo and Franco Semioli.
• Mutu has played with plenty of Italian internationals during his time in Serie A: Gianluigi Buffon, Mauro Camoranesi, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Del Piero, Gianluca Zambrotta (with Juventus); Alberto Gilardino, Camoranesi, Massimo Oddo (with Verona), Daniele Bonera, Gilardino (with Parma); Panucci (with Inter).
• Midfielder Paul Codrea is the third Romanian international playing in Italy at AC Siena. He has also played for Genoa, US Città di Palermo and Torino FC.
• Defender Cosmin Contra spent the 2001/02 season with Milan while goalkeeper Bogdan Lobonţ had a spell with Fiorentina in 2006.
• Italy forward Tommaso Rocchi struck twice as S.S. Lazio came from behind to beat FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti 3-1 in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie in Romania last August. Dinamo had taken the lead through Romanian international Florin Bratu but eventually succumbed 4-2 on aggregate.
• Italy have a positive recent memory of the Letzigrund Stadion in Zurich after defeating fellow UEFA EURO 2008™ finalists Portugal 3-1 there on 6 February this year.
• Italy's best performance in the UEFA European Championship came in 1968 when they beat Yugoslavia to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy. They were runners-up in 2000 and semi-finalists in 1988 with a team featuring Donadoni himself.
• Romania's best performance in three previous UEFA European Championship finals appearances was in 2000 when they reached the quarter-finals before losing to Italy.
• This is the 13th edition of the UEFA European Championship and the eighth that features a final tournament with a group phase.

http://en.euro2008.uefa.com/tourname...695/index.html



Must win for both teams, but mostly Italy after losing their first game.

All of this is meaninless, just ask italy who hadn't lost to Holland in 30 years.

What matters is how the teams are playing now, and Romania looked pretty solid, their defense was great (very similar to greece in 04, loading the defense with a ton of men) and france had few real chances. Mutu showed some skill that might just surprise the italians.

I think Italy is cabable of beating any team in the world and they should win this match but it won't be a blowout and a tie wouldnt surprise me either.

[ToonUSA]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

i don't think so. we all put our hopes in the last game against Holland, but i'm not sure we can win that. i say we have to win against italy...

in the first game we obtained a good result, but let's be honest our game in attack sucked (i hope it was because of the stress). we looked like Dacia Mioveni , very good in defense but always kicking the ball forward without any vision of the game. i hope we change this 7-2-1 sistem...i sincerely think this was the most ugly and boring game at this euro.

Italy will be forced to attack us and this time we must have courage and play a good counter-attack game that can bring us the 3 points. i'm optimistic, i say 2-0 for Romania

No, a draw is fine. If Holland beats France that leaves us in 2nd place playing an already qualified Dutch team while Italy and France battle against each other. Playing D. Niculae was a mistake and I hope it was just Piti saving Marica for the game against Italy. Holland certainly showed everyone that Italy isn't the same team defensively without Cannavaro, but we must also remember that Italy are very good on the attack and must not let our defense lapse. Our defense is our strong suit and it can carry us to the next round.