Not sure I would rank Italy as high as you did this early on still. I mean we've played two games. One against an overrated Belgium team and a sloppy snoozer against Sweden. My ranking: 1. Spain 2. France 3. Germany 4. Italy/Croatia 5. Portugal/Belgium/England/Poland 6. The rest Lets hope italia can bring up a notch or two in the knockout rounds.
I agree, as a fan of soccer, Prandelli's team in 2012 was entertaining to watch. Defensively we weren't as tight but it was refreshing to see a cohesive midfield who could control the game with possession, passing and creativity.
You're still questioning him after two wins and scoring as many goals as shots conceded on our own net. Take off your anti juve glasses
We played great in 2012. How could u say we didn't? Apart from the final, we were brilliant. Opening two games we played some great football despite drawing. We thrashed England on everywhere bar the score board and ha 40 shots at goal. Germany game we destroyed them. Can't doubt conte until he gives us a reason to. I was a doubter, but we smashed the group with a game to go. Destroyed Belgium. Sweden not so but we didn't have to and we got the result In the end. I think the second stringers will want to prove a point and we will beat Ireland rather easily. Imagine what Insigne would do if he started . He might come on late and score the winner like del piero did in our final group game at euro 2000 giving us 3 from 3 haha! Anyway I'm happy we've what we did thus far. Short handed and un fancied we've past this test with flying colours.
Forza poms don't have a good record against the French. Not recently anyway. They did beat them in their last encounter but that wasn't long or just days after the Paris attacks happened. France beat Germany just days before, the night hose Attacks happened of course. Anyway, England won't be beating France. And you can expect the Fenway to get a call or two their way and other teams have a call or three go against them. In any case Pogba, Griezman and Payet will destroy England. And if it goes to penalties we know how England fare there.
Important day for our side of the KO bracket. Let's hope Poland can score some goals & Northern Ireland can keep the score down in the Germany game. N. Ireland will play a 4-5-1 in their attempt to become one of the advancing 3rd place teams. Ukraine has only pride to play for. Let's also hope the Czechs & the Spaniards get wins in their games.
I'm not Italian, but they are the team I enjoy following in Europe, because I like Serie A. The player that's been key for Italy so far is Candreva. He has good vision, delivers excellent crosses, he's not selfish, he's pacy, he has good end product and he's a smart player.
What ??? Juve wins all those titles and they came back from the brink of elimination this year and you say they play like shit ??? Your definition of winning must be different than mine.
You have a far superior record to Germany and they don't look at their prime. I wouldn't worry to be honest.
At Halftime so far: Croatia 1 - Spain 1 Turkey 1 - Czech 0 Looks like Hrvatska in the round of 16 with a potential Germany in the Quarters... definetely not an easy route for us at all.
Nice reward for being one of the best teams in this euro..........get to play one of the two most dominant international sides of this era in the round of 16
Prandelli's tiki taka 3-5-2 worked well against Spain in the first match group in 2012....it's when he used a 4-4 2 and some injured and tired players in the final where the wheels also fell off we had the problem maybe Conte's 3-5-2 will work even better should be interesting I think people are over rating Spain......they are a top squad but when they were first faced with decent opposition this tournament they showed they are vulnerable. even if it was a group match it was still an important group match