England, ******** me. Batten down the forum and prepare to repel premtrolls. I just know that Italy is going to make me suffer like never before. Dream: Italy go up 1-0 early and hold the lead for the whole game, even though the ref is appallingly biased against them. Two beautiful Italian goals are waved off incorrectly. Carroll is booked for diving, Rooney misses a bogusly awarded PK and is sent off for suckerpunching De Rossi, and Gerrard gets a second yellow for yapping at the ref. Also it would be awesome if England had a legitimate goal disallowed. English pundits die of apoplexy. All is right with the universe. Nightmare: Italy go up 1-0 early and concede a ridiculous goal in injury time, then go on to lose on penalties.
I watched that as well. Hansen knows nothing about Italian football and always writes us off. In Germany 2006 he tipped either Brazil, Argentina or England to win. All went out at the quarter finals. They also made a joke about Hansen not rating Ibrahimovic as a player. We did look tired in the second half of the matches but this time we will have a week to prepere instead of four days so I expect our fitness levels to be better.
This is bigsoccer, every board is considered an England board by the management. We won't need to go to them, they will go on the "neutral" threads and come in here and talk trash with impunity. Just like always. I better go check and make sure my ignore list is working... M, Prawn Sandwich, that whole ********ing lot of them... shit, I should just quit bigsoccer now and save the aggravation. Whether Italy wins or loses won't even matter, they are equally annoying beating their chests or bleating their excuses.
both scenarios sound horrible man, whats wrong with u? LOL good scenario for me; italy go up 2-0 easily first half and english lose all hope 2nd half...then they'll have a 10-15 of possession and attacking but nothing to show for it...then the 3rd sub for italy will come in and score the 3rd goal in 83rd min and send the english fans home crying If italy plays like they did vs. croatia and spain in first half...they NEED to finish the chances and for sure can get 2 goals
This is great ! I did not watch the Eng/Uk match but apparently England parked the bus, and then got a lucky bounce off rooneys head. England team is so hyped up, its not even funny and there is no way they will be able to stop Italys attack ! Some of the comment here are ridiculous.
No. Because then they'll take credit for it by saying, "Obviously, one Premier League player can carry that lot of diving catenaccio cheaters..."
Absolute rubbish. Look at the English board and we are giving Italy a lot of respect. Of course we are happy that we are not facing Spain, who would want to face the current Euro and WC champions? Us being happy that we avoided Spain does not translate to us being happy that we have got Italy next. There is no need to make up untrue claims.
A late Walcott / Ox introduction might be cause for worry, if Hodgson sticks with that pattern. Although Rooney is also not quite match fit, so that could help in the later stages. And, despite the ridicule I may endure, without Chiellini in the back I think Carroll could actually cause some problems if he comes in late. Especially since Ashley Young has not really shown up in this tournament--Sunday would be a bad time for him to refind his ability to cross a ball. But I'm hopeful. Based on the tournament, I think Italy have played significantly better and looked more comfortable.
I'm not worried about England's pace out wide so much because Italy has tons of speed there. Abate can keep up even with C. Ronaldo. Balzaretti is also very very fast. If it's 3-5-2, then you have Maggio instead of Abate, not much loss of pace there. Carroll nicking one on a header certainly can't be ruled out. Gerrard having a moment and walloping one in from 30 yards also worries me, even if he sends four or five other shots into orbit, with Italy's luck, he'll connect on one. Plus I feel certain the refs will award England a PK for something, deserved or not. Probably some pathetic dive by Rooney. Italy should play like they need to score at least two goals to win, preferably three.
Agreed. We Italy fans have a bit of an inferiority complex. Everyone here should relax. It will be a good game, it's wide open, neither side should assume they are a guarantee for the win or even that the other fans are assuming such.
I don't know friend. I listened to talksport this afternoon and heard some ridiculous calls. England went from a workman like squad to the best team in europe. One caller even said "Yeah i know Pirlo is class, but England have Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney and Andy Carroll." I'm not making that up
To be fair Italian general TV journalists and pundits (the likes of Collovati, D'Amico, Varriale, Bartoletti, Zazzaroni...Jesus Christ) are just as ignorant, biased and prone to silly stereotyping...it's not unique to England. Some RAI comments are borderline offensive.
errm excuse me, just how the fcuk is it absolute rubbish? do you guys on the english board work for bbc or itv? no? is your name adrian chiles, alan hansen etc? no? so go crawl back in the whole you came out of before you acuse me of making untrue claims which are actually facts, i havent even looked at the english boards after that game so im obviuosly not talking about them, it is you who is talking absolute rubbish speak for yourrself, unless you are telling me i imagined everything i heard and saw on tv last night?
I'm completely sick of watching the France match up. I was very happy we got England, they will be difficult to beat but easier to watch then France.