Well done to all our Italian supporting posters, apart from the first 20 minutes they dominated the game, but they need to put away the chances they created. If Rooney's overhead had connected right in the 89th minute they would have truly regretted their wasteful ways.
Germany will not give them nearly so much possession, and will attack more than England did. The Italian defence will be much busier in the next game. I'd like to see Italy win it, but I don't think they can.

I posted this in the Italy-Spain thread but each successive match is showing the point more clearly: Cassano is not a penalty box predator; he prefers to play as a support striker. Balotelli is young and if he can stay out of his own way will likely become a top striker, but right now he isn't good enough. The problem for Italy is that the other strikers who had been in form in the past had poor seasons+. Given this, it is strange that DiNatale didn't get see some time in this game. But as dalliance (?) said, perhaps Prandelli knew where this game was headed and knows that some fresh legs will be needed for the 1/2 Final. BTW I enjoyed having time to enjoy each 1/4 Final but spreading out the games like this seriously hurts Italy, although the striker problem will hurt them more. The mid-field is strong, though, and that will bode well. It would have been nice if Prandelli would have taken a flyer on Inzaghi. I know he's seen very little playing time the past few years, but all Pipo needs is one or two chances.

I've still got Italy to win this thing. If they can beat Germany, I think they'll be ok against Portugal or Spain.

I think Beckham's foot giving way in 2004 was on the mind of a few of the English

Again, I was at that game, I was sitting 10 rows behind the goal where it was taken.

To this day I can't believe there's no video of it happening, or no talk of it happening, but I saw it and I can't believe it happened and no one said a word about it.

But before the shootout, when everyone was at midfield, Ricardo was walking back and forth, scuffing the spot where Beckham would be stepping. He'd walk a few steps, come back and kick up some grass and kick it back, over and over again.

Beckham steps up, slips, and ball goes over. I still can't believe no one saw it or says anything about it.

Re: Hart's Faces

Hart's job is to save penalties. Making faces has no effect on his "concentration." A keeper's job during pks is:

(A) Make the other player think.
Grobbelar and Dudek's Spaghetti Legs were as weird and distracting as it gets, causing player's to think. It's no difference than a frilled lizard or that crazy lizard that squirts blood from its eyes. By making a shooter think, even if it's a subconscious "oh shit, he's making these fucked-up looking spaghetti legs, he must know what I'm doing...so I better hit it harder," the goalkeeper wins.

I swear to you, I had a U-11 keeper who smiled...big missing-front-tooth smiled at players going to shoot. We won both shootouts he was in. It shook the other team, and settled our team. Hart's tongue had zero effect on his ability to save the shot and decreased the odds of the attacker's shot. If he didn't do something like that, he wouldn't be doing his job.

(B) Make an educated guess
It's not like the old days of getting to the post as fast as the ball was shot in a 45/55 gamble (not 50/50, because the keeper had to actually save the ball as well.) The keepers went the correct way in 5 of the 9 shots tonight, so both did their job in that sense.

Pirlo's Paneka was well-taken, and much like Portugal's Paneka in 2004, it was at the perfect time (after Italy's miss and being down a goal, and on Portugal's game-tying 5th shot to send it to extra rounds.)

meregreen wrote:


This. I was actually willing an Italian goal near the end, as I was just tired with seeing england so outclassed, and as usual a false hope in the pennos.
I agree with TG, on one thing only, the Pirlo penno , really turned the tide and rattle the two Ashleys/settle the rest of the Italian takers.

[quote="Beltrano Carpinteiro" post=682574]blamelesz wrote:


He was OK, had some good moments, but also got caught out of position quite often. I'm not convinced there aren't two better centre backs among the other 15 teams.

Pepe and Hummels are the only other contenders for me so far.

Analogue Bubblebath II wrote:


I took it to mean not that Italy were "just about" better than England, but that they "just about" deserved it, being pretty ropy themselves (though clearly streets ahead of England).


At the start of the match as the camera panned among the players I was struck by how the pathetic single star on the England badge is rendered even more pathetic by the fact that Italy don't bother putting any on theirs

Like those 4 stars above?

Edit - Ooh! that came out big.

Ah. Yes, those I guess. Is that really the badge? I think I hadn't paid too much attention. It's awful.

Had a great night watching the match in an packed Avenida da Republica bar with a friendly 50/50 mix of English and Italian ex-pats.

Am I alone in thinking England kept Pirlo pretty quiet until the hour mark? He only started to dominate mid-way through the second-half. I agree that the substitutions helped him, Welbeck was doing a good job reducing his space when he played deep and Gerrard and Parker would pick him up when he advanced. But it just deteriorated on 60 minutes.

Carroll was awful. The Italians were letting him win every ball in their half because he could do precisely nothing with it once he'd won the ball. All those long balls trapped with his chest in mid-air looked great, but he'd then lay the ball off to an Italian defender. I can't recall a single occasion where he passed successfully to a team-mate after trapping/controlling a long ball.

I really enjoyed the game, it was open enough to be engaging throughout. The Portuguese commentators had nothing but praise for both sides and both teams played some great passing football at times to mount attacks. Italy deserved to win and when they won an young Italian girl in front of me wearing the hottest of white hot pants jumped up and down like a maniac. After she saw the glum look of resignation on my face, she said "sorreeee baaaad looook" - which was nice.

Beltrano Carpinteiro wrote:


Ditto Tom Cleverly.

Still, could be worse. I'm convinced this one is made by a nephew of somebody at the FAI:

Someone's channelling Hof from upthread;

Beltrano Carpinteiro wrote:


Great photoshopping of Balotelli showing some emotion there.

jv, we know why he did it. It is just that it didn't work. At all. Indeed, there may be an argument that it put him off more than anyone else.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-18576404#

About 150 England fans headed to The Embankment after the game and targeted Italian fans, who had formed a cavalcade of vehicles to celebrate.

It's that sense of fair-play and stoicism that makes the Ingurlander fans so, so lovable.

Haven't you got a bridge you should be hiding under?

szczeweeeeeeeee wrote:


I think that replacing Welbeck with Carroll was Hodgson's biggest mistake in the tournament, Welbeck was pretty much winning all the headers AND using the ball fairly well, where as Carroll came on, gave away free-kicks and squandered the ball whenever he got it.

I'm still confused about why John Terry wasn't supposed to celebrate with the rest of Chelsea, but I guess we've had that conversation.