Only due to an arduriz offside goal did we not end our run of poor matches vs the Spanish. Rematch of last euros finale where we were punished 4-0. I think the only way we would lose would be on penalties. I think we will beat Spain.
Insigne. Play him from the start which won't happen. If it did, he'd unlock the Spanish defence at will.
the format sucked from the beginning and I knew it would lead to screwy brackets saying only the group winners of A B C and D will play the four best 3rd place teams was highly stupid they needed to create more balance somehow and include one of the winners of either group E or group F it was like they said...f7ck it...we will just put the winners of the first four groups ( A through D ) against the four best 3rd place teams without even bothering to see how this could go wrong
Should of somehow been points based. Top 4 group winners by tie breaker play third place? But of course then they couldn't guarantee the hosts a third place team
Don't know about you guys, but if we can't get to the semis then I want soain to beat us. I do not want to lose our record to Germany because of contes stupid picks.
First and foremost I would like to say I'm new here. I have been following a lot of the posts on this forum all throughout the year with the azzurri, you guys provide some awesome opinions Next regarding todays game, italy looked totally deflated. Insigne seemed to be the only one with a strong showing. Via Football Italia --Did insigne play good? contes answer "“I don’t know. It was a very physical match, I introduced Insigne when the Irish defence spread out a bit and created gaps from the midfield." I would take this as a poor vote of confidence and highly doubt he will start against spain. Brutal considering he is our only creative outlet. Conte had a game where he should have experimented with some different attacking combos all game. Instead we picked up a few more yellows, and a spanking by a shitty ireland team. I would take this game with a grain of salt and brush it off. I think we will be much more organized and ready for spain. The Azzurri remember 08 12 and confeds. We need to make this a scrappy game and i like our chances!
Spain can be beaten and can be destroyed, 2 examples Conte should learn from: Confed cup final brazil- spain 3-0 WC 2014 HOLLAND - Spain 5-1 add to that our revenge motive
Na. Sounds like he's more annoyed at the journalist. Not that he'll start, but if we can't touch the ball in midfield, I'm sure he'll be getting a run.
Yes, Insigne needs to play this game. Bottom line, Spain cannot score first. I can't see us coming back from a one goal deficit. Spain will kill us with possession and we would be lucky to get a few fast breaks..
It's going to be a boring game, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, shoot, miss, counter, lose possession, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, shoot, miss....rinse and repeat
This would have made too much sense. Or why not just do eight teams. The six group winners and the two best runner ups. Sure two group winners would get to face runner ups while the rest played each other but you'd have to imagine that would be more balanced then it is right now. To me, the issue isn't that Italy has to face Spain. It's that the other group winners were always going to get an easier match regardless. Even if Spain topped the group and Italy faced Croatia, that's still tougher than having to face a team like Hungry, Iceland, etc etc. It was completely unfair to the winners of the last two groups.
Spain beat the Czechs late and beat turkey. Lost to croatia after leading and played them without their best player and attacker. This isn't the same Spain team we've seen in the past. We've been in cruise control since our opening win vs Belgium. We should be beating Spain.
Insigne should be starting . When it was official that Italy had the group won and were going to face Spain I knew they were going to play like crap against Ireland , But still no excuses. Here is hoping Pissed off Italy shows up on Monday. there is a huge revenge factor here.
Actually, football italia.net have a habbit of lazily translating. What Conte said is actually more annoying. He said "I dont know if insigne deserved more minutes". I'll repeat it again, Conte took Insigne unwillingly and only to give himself some peace from the media. Just imagine had he not taken one single player from the 2nd placed serie A team.
This gives us a nice balance of Defence and Forward/Counter attacking ability. Buffon Barzagli - Bonucci - Chiellini Florenzi - DeRossi -Giaccherini- Darmian Insigne Pelle - Eder Subs: The Pharoah for Eder, Desciglio for Darmian and not sure on last sub.
Why is everyone blown away by the format for the round of 16? We are using the same format as WC 86-94. If we were in the easy bracket no one here would care.
Thanks for the insight. Candreva is a lock, along with Buffon, BBC, Parolo, Giaccherini, Eder, Pelle, and De Rossi. In fact the only spot up for grabs is the left hand wing
The first four teams to have qualified for the knockout stage should have been seeded against the four third-seeded teams that have qualified.
Yes a re-seed would be ideal but we knew the format was going to be the same as WC 86-94 so why are we upset now and not before?