Italy vs Portugal Friendly 16th June in Geneva

To add to the point above, I am portuguese and not even once have I ever heard about this stupid luso-italian rivalry that only seems to happen in that corner of the world. Get a grip and drop the Jersey Shore attitude with the "4 stars bro". I can assure you that no italian I've ever met in the football world goes out screaming clownish things like that. Don't be an embarassment to your countrymen. There are a lot of people here who respect italian football.

 

Don't take anything he says seriously boys, not too many in this forum do either.

 

Before we close out this thread for the summer, I am predicting and am sorry to say, Cristiano Ronaldo & Portugal will not win anything on the Euro or WC stage. You can bet on that!

 

98 to the present you say would be a better representation? Well, I disagree because you guys had some great players from those legendary Benfica teams in the 60's and 70's (Eusébio) ....but lets examine 98 to present first....then more below about the other stuff

Italy knocked out by France in WC France 98 by pk's...Italy didn't lose a single match
Portugal failed to qualify for WC France 98

Euro 2000 Italy Runners up
Portugal places 4th

WC 2002...Italy round of 16
Portugal group

Euro 2004 Italy group phase not losing a single match
Portugal runners up but loses to Greece at home twice ( group and final ) but nevertheless still 2nd

WC 2006 Italy WC Champs
Portugal 4th place

Euro 2008 Italy knocked out by eventual champs Spain in quarters via pk's....technically a draw
Portugal knocked out in quarters by Germany

WC 2010 Italy Group phase
Portugal round of 16

Euro 2012 Italy runners up
Portugal 4th knocked out by eventual champs spain via pk's ...a draw

WC 2014 Italy Group
Portugal group

it's not just a matter of " 4 stars bro " and " looking into the past " but more a matter of comparing the 2 countries national football records in the WC and Euro and easily seeing not only has Italy won more tournaments in each but they have also placed better more times and qualified for all but one WC in 1958 with the reason mostly being most of our starting players for the national squad were killed in the Superga Air Disaster and it took Italy years to rebuild the national team after that

like Italy Portugal too did not enter the original 1930 WC but how do you explain Portugal not qualifying for a single WC from 1934 to 1982 with the exception of 1966 in England where you placed 3rd? How do you explain not qualifying for a single Euro Cup from 1960 to 1992 with the exception of 1984 where you placed 4th. It's strange that during those first two cups ( WC 66 and Euro 84 ) you managed to finally qualify for that you placed 3rd and 4th respectively , but then I guess even a broken clock is correct two times a day.

What's even more strange is that for all those tournaments you missed in the 60's ( except WC 66 ) and 70's didn't you have a guy by the name of Eusébio who played on those legendary Benifica squads that managed to win the Champion's League in 61, 62 and were runners up 63, 65, 68? Also didn't many of the players from Portugal at that time come directly from those legendary Benfica teams? How did you guys manage to " vanish from world football for about 30 years " with players like Eusébio and others from those Benfica teams of the 60's and 70's....it's odd

While Italy has had up times and down times one thing Italy has shown is that Italy has been consistently qualifying for tournaments, winning tournaments and placing well in tournaments for over 80 years with Germany as the only European country with a more consistent record

Again it's not a matter of " 4 world cups bro " and looking into the past....but more a matter of comparing the two countries records and the " what have you done lately " mentality....see for yourself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal_national_football_team

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy_national_football_team

 

Your making it seem as if I was saying Portugal has been better than Italy since 98, which I used as a benchmark for when we consistently qualified for all tournies. I'm not, ofcourse I'm aware that Italy is a giant of football and the comparison is nonsensical. But 4 stars can always be said. If we win the next euro, than you can still say 4 stars bro, than we can win the next WC, than again 4 stars bro, so on and so on, which to me is a copout. Again I respect Italy as a football giant and wouldn't dream to compare, but no use in focusing on the past when things change like they did for Spain. To make it clear I'm not saying we will win, just saying the past gives you a indicator but certainly not a predictor.

 

@Nani_17

to be honest i think spain has had their golden years and won't be dominate again...at least like 2008-2012... for a while

right now in many of the european national squads there aren't a whole lot of players that really standout anymore.....the climate right now in europe is one of parity and that any given team of the top teams in europe has an equal chance of winning the next euro or wc

edit...also to be fair to spain things didn't suddenly change....they won euro 1964 and qualfied for many WC's and Euro's doing well in some of them before 2008-2012...the only thing that changed was that they were finally able to up their game in a tournament and take it

Spain beat themselves alot of the time before that

the quality was always there

 

Only 8 nations have won the WC and 9 the Euro Cup. Four of the Euro Cup winners have also won World Cups and its a safe bet one of those same nations will be repeating in the next 10 years. Czech in 96, Denmark in 92 and Greece in 2004 were almost flukes. I doubt we will see many of these types of winners once again in today's international game.

 

basically

you have your flukes and your countries that have disappeared....

Disappeared ( USSR or successor Russia ) ( Czechoslovakia or successor Czech Rep. ) ( Yugoslavia successor Serbia ) (Hungary)....maybe you could even consider Austria and Poland too

Then you have Netherlands...won euro 88 and always competitve but has been extremely unlucky not to finally win a WC

Flukes.....Greece 2004...Denmark 92

also you mean Czechoslovakia 1976 not 96

Certain countries will always be a contender.....always has been and always will be...much of their culture will always demand it and expect nothing less

Others may rise for a short while and fall off the map and few of them will ever have a renaissance like Uruguay did before they fall off the map again

 

We'll talk about 4 stars all day, they are on our shirt and we deserve them, it's our past and represents world cup victories. Something your team knows nothing about. You have to show your history and remember your world cup wins, otherwise what's the point of evening recording things.

 

Denmark shouldn't have even made the tournament and the only reason they qualified was because Yugoslavia was breaking up and was at war. I was mistaken it was Nedved's Czechs in 1996 who came in second.

 

I already predicted when C Ronaldo first started playing that Portugal wouldn't win anything internationally after they lost euro 2004. Eleven years later I'm still right. When I'm dead I'll still be right. When time ends I'll still be right

 

I also still have that prediction for Messi never winning the world cup

 

hysterical isn't it...team that gets in because Yugoslavia was banned ends up winning it.....meanwhile Italy battle it out in a group with the Soviet Union, Hungary and Norway and place 2nd in qualifying

also if Zola doesn't miss that penalty against germany in 96 we win that tournament

 

I was living in Florence during the 2002 WC and I knew beforehand that the USA would beat Portugal despite the fact that they had the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year in Luis Figo. When the USA jumped out to a 3-0 lead, you could see how overrated and outclassed they were.

Or if Sacchi picked Baggio instead of Zola....

 

Dat sic bro...you is like soccer genius bro....fist pump bro...you and Falvo is some cool peeps bro...let's go get some sic tribal tats togeter Bros. ..look sic in are camaros bro

 

toronto?

 

Yep

 

hey look who it is reffing that game....Byron Moreno.....to Portugal's credit maybe he was paid for this game too....maybe the japanese and koreans had a stake in seeing the Unites States go far...who knows?

Basically

 

yeah I know nothing about that....just from what I understand here on these forums

 

If it had been a few years later , I doubt Byron Moreno would want to help the USA especially since he spent time in an American jail cell for drug trafficking....

 

I tried having a civil convo, but some crease heads just can't help themselves. In fairness he probably didn't understand what I was saying if he didn't have his English to retard dictionary available.

 

You know, you can really see who the classy members based on their reactions to losses. We won a friendly and automatically you guys cling to your World Cup wins... your predictions about Ronaldo, what Portugal has done/will do... Personally, I'm proud of what a country with one sixth of the population of Italy has done in football. We haven't had the greatest legacy, and the same can be said for a lot of teams, but we still manage to produce some top quality talent. I think it's only a matter of time before we produce another proper nucleus of players that can be dominant on the world stage.

 

yeah but he spent time in jail in the states after 2002....I was saying maybe during this WC Japan/Korea had a joint interest in seeing the U.S.A gets out of the group so they appoint Mr 10 Kilos as the ref against Portugal

 

I was civil, I just pointed out 4 stars means something and we can bring it up as we choose. Just like we can bring up Sal's mom and Cassano and Borriello's sexcapades. I am from Toronto area as well...a product of my environment

 

Yeah he had no business giving Totti that red.