Sweden would be my 2nd choice. N Ireland first. Would not of wanted Greece as they bunker down. Thank God we didn't get Republic of Ireland.
Except Ireland, which I feared the most, all the rest were similar for me (albeit for different reasons)
As an Italy fan I am quite worried about Sweden; the one team I didn't want. They beat France and Netherlands in qualifying. Beat Luxemburg 8-0 at home (nothing to sniff at as as the azzurri rarely beat teams 8-0). On the other hand, at least Italy don't have the pressure of being overwhelming favorites which they would have had against the other teams.
I would say Sweden are the best of the bunch, but the other teams would bunker and counter us to death.
They also only beat Luxembourg 1-0. Can't look at scorelines and by the way The Netherlands haven't been a team for quite some time. No great accomplishment beating them.
They barely beat France , at home , scoring the winning goal in the 94 minute to beat France 2-1. France also beat them convincingly 2-1 in France earlier. Sweden however did not beat the Netherlands. They drew 1-1 in Sweden and Sweden lost 2-0 in Amsterdam. Putting that aside , I too did not want Sweden first , but at least out of all the teams we could have played perhaps Sweden is the least likely to bunker allowing us to maybe , just maybe , create.
At least we don't have to deal with Ibra! We will be ok as long as Ace Ventura uses a formation condusive to winning games. No more 424 you old ass mafq!
we'll beat Sweden. I can't believe all the depression on this thread and Venturas Italia. we'll make the world cup you ********s. anyone who doesn't believe that is pretty retarded
Maybe because we got wrecked by Spain? Maybe because we barely beat Israel at home? Maybe because we tied Macedonia at home? Maybe because we barely scraped by Albania? Like, what shining future are you seeing? Help a brother out because i'm not seeing anything worthwhile and as an Italian born that bleeds our colors i'm hoping we don't qualify. It's time to overhaul and take a good look at our organization starting at club level. I don't know about you but i'd rather not qualify now while things are somewhat quiet in the soccer world rather than being embarrassed while the world is watching.
I think it's safe to say none of us (almost none of us?) are with you. We want to qualify for the world cup. It's 5000x more embarrassing not being in the fcuking world cup then losing in it. 31 of the 32 teams lose
The last two world cups were a disaster and I have a bad feeling they were leading up to this; a culminating capitulation against Sweden and a failure to qualify. It's sort of like the 70/66/62/58 cycle only in reverse. I hope I'm wrong.
I'm just a huge pessimist and i just have a terrible feeling, if Ventura left i'd feel more optimistic but seeing his stubborn attitude and continuance of ignorance i just have no faith.
lol not having faith in the coach is a common feeling before a tournament. don't you all remember.just read all the previous threads
Ibra did ******** all against us last year. Yes he's injured but you still wouldn't want him playing against us if he wasn't, especially at home. Hope we make it but at the same time if we don't, it will be the best thing for us long term.