Spain vs Italy [P+R+Why Italy Will Win]

[newbie original]

Torres had an awful (Italy with 2 holding midfielders) game while Cesc Fabregas was largely contained for the 60 mins he got.....

 

[modena_10]

But why all the sour grapes and hypocrisy in this thread? Chill out.

after reading this entire thread, i have to say i'm rather disgusted with some of the spanish contingent. seriously, show some class. this thread has cemented some of the reasoning in my mind as to why i don't frequent these forums as much as i have in the past. it's just all hate and the intelligent posts(posters) get washed away in all the bull****. not cool.

as for what really mattered on this day, i have to say the team with the better approach deserved their victory. ugly match for anyone who watched it, i really don't believe the spanish played that well(don't worry italy obviously didn't play better). but they won ugly, something they haven't been able to do in seemingly forever, so good on them for pulling one out. obviously frustrated by the italian defending, all they could do was shoot from 25+ yards. leaving the italians only to wait for a passing error to turn it into a harmless counter. just sloppy all the way around.

can't defend italy on this day, without pirlo in the midfield it was obvious we missed creativity, flow and overall quality. no support to toni or cassano. our strategy on sending the long ball into toni was pitifull. donadoni is just not on this level of coaching yet, maybe one day but definitely not this tournament.

camoranesi's inclusion in the 2nd was an obvious spark and we carved out probably the best chances of the game sadly. but it was all for not as no momentum was created by either team because of the constant fouling.

funny thing is, this game was so bad, it sucks rehashing it. nothing concrete to argue or even discuss.

Ah football. The game that unites the people of the World huh?

True, the Italians were super negative, and the extent of their negativity even shocked our Italian fans on this forum. So don't take it out on these guys, they had no say in their teams tactics.

So ok, their team was awful, but I still wanna say to the fans on here, hard luck fellas, really.

Spain? Congrats to the Spanish fans in here of course. Not surprised by the amount of diving going on by Torres, Villa and the rest, only dissapointed that with all the plaudits these players are drawing they still think cheating in front of the whole World is acceptable.

I hate divers, and I've had to put up with a few at Chelsea believe me. They are the lowest of the low and I just cannot respect any player who does that. I certainly would not want any more at my club either.

The Italians were no angels either. In particular I was pretty disgusted by the way that Di Natale crawled back onto the pitch to stop a Spanish attack. That was just shameful.

So congrats to the Spanish fans because I know that you never expected to go through, but try to be a little more gracious in victory guys. You could at least afford that to the losing fans.

well spoken my friend.

 

[locco]

COMMERCIAL :

Carlsberg doesn't call football coaches idiots ...but if it would , they would probably be right
Donadoni ...probably the worst football coach in the world

 

[KingPaulV]

Its been over 24 years of frustration Modena, surely you would understand if you country had undergone such frustrating run of results, but you wouldnt at this point Italy has performed rather well over the pas 20 years in international competitions, including three world cup finals and one trophy...And actually if you count the fact that our only trophy was in 64 now you just compounded a further 20 years on an already frustrating set of events...

Luck has seldom smiled on Spain on these big competitions, and even today to a great extend luck smiled on Italy all the way to the dead...I dont justify people cussing Italy out and all that, because I myself have Italian relatives, but at least understand how much relief there is over the whole of Spain and indeed with us Spanish fans. its been years of watching our clubs perform superbly but watching our NT stink up the joint when it counts and specially against Italy

 

[Zlatan]

Hahaha, wat a ****ty match. I watched it in a cafe where I had a party and we were all rooting for SPain. Haha it was great.

 

[newbie original]

...this thread has cemented some of the reasoning in my mind as to why i don't frequent these forums as much as i have in the past. .....

Ah, that's dissapointing to hear. You gotta shake it off man.....

 

[modena_10]

Its been over 24 years of frustration Modena, surely you would understand if you country had undergone such frustrating run of results, but you wouldnt at this point Italy has performed rather well over the pas 20 years in international competitions, including three world cup finals and one trophy...And actually if you count the fact that our only trophy was in 64 now you just compounded a further 20 years on an already frustrating set of events...

i can definitely understand that. it has been a very long time of compounded frustration and disappointment for the spanish NT but all the garbage uttered in this thread, and even in other threads leading up to this game, is more shocking than the actual game. even before the game was won or even played, reading all that **** was infuriating.

on a different note, the one thing that probably pissed me off the most about this debacle of a tournament was the fact that even though this wasn't the most impressive italian side we still had the quality to win. in qualifying and friendlies we played well in both defence and offence but it seemed the occassion of euro put donadoni in a shell. maybe this was compounded by the loss to the dutch, who knows. but i do think that donadoni was not outcoached by his opposition rather himself. now i can only pray for a quality new coach and a much needed youth movement.

one positive i take out of this tournament was the play of giorgio chiellini. he was unreal today vs the potent spanish attack who we made invisible. i can only pray he keeps up this play because the options in central defence for the future are bleak behind him and andrea barzagli.

 

[Sevillista]

All of the garbage? Like the actual historical examples that I began this topic with?

I don't care who I offend anymore. I've seen Italy win repeatedly over the years when they've been outplayed, when they've cheated, and when they've clearly played for PK's. At the same time I've seen Spain put together an incredible team and then choke. I am ecstatic with today's outcome. It's been a long time coming.

 

[Sevillista]

On a more analyitical note:

- Aragones nearly sunk us by subbing out Xavi for Cesc. Cesc slowed us down tremendously in spite of his quality. Luckily he scored the winning PK or it would have been truly regrettable.
- I don't know how Güiza won the pichichi this year. He is so far below our quality. I don't know why Aragones put him in.
- Italy played most of the match hoping for PK's... this was probably their best bet considering Pirlo's creative absence, but it was wonderful nonetheless that this tactic backfired.
- Another poor performance by Sergio Ramos as well.
-For those saying this was a boring match, you can hardly blame it on the Spanish. We had massive amounts of posession in the first half but spent it looking at 7-8 Italian players defending. Very hard to penetrate.

My celebratory rum is getting to my head . Time to stop writing.

 

[Hopeunited]

Very good yellow card for David Villa. Disgraceful dive!

Luca Toni is a little b*tch as well. A huge man like him falls at every little tap on the shin pads with an expression of being boned up the ass by a tree stump.

 

[OrgulloVikingo]

Congratulations to Spain, I was pleasantly surprised to see them go through, and this is coming from someone who generally supports the opposing team. This should make an interesting semi final, I'm sure Russia won't make the same mistake.

This Russia team we are going to face Thursday is a much different team from the one we thrashed. It will be tough. They look impressive indeed. Don't get any big ideas about another 4-1 or similar score guys!

 

[OrgulloVikingo]

OK, we all know about the Italians playing 10 men behind the ball so why all this talk about both teams not wanting to take chances, bla bla bla? Believe me Spain are not Italy. we have the talent to take it to people. We don't sit back and hang out. C'mon, you can take 10 strangers from the streets and line them up behind the ball and chances are theyll defend decently! Italy doesnt know how to play another way. IMO, they are not talented enough to play a flowing short pass technical game. They showed up wanting pk's and they got it. I think its time to realize that their catennacio style is way outdated and does an overall diservice to football fans everywhere.

On another note, I am surprised there isnt more talk about that son of a (k)unt ref! I mean, he was either 1, paid off by Italy or 2, just absolute rubbish! Either way, he doesn't deserve to ever officiate a half important match anymore. Perhaps working in a pub league, but thats it. He nearly caused us the game! Sorry, but we had at the very least, 1 penalty that was ignored. I was appauled by his appointment for this match.

 

[Lean]

i can definitely understand that. it has been a very long time of compounded frustration and disappointment for the spanish NT but all the garbage uttered in this thread, and even in other threads leading up to this game, is more shocking than the actual game. even before the game was won or even played, reading all that **** was infuriating.

on a different note, the one thing that probably pissed me off the most about this debacle of a tournament was the fact that even though this wasn't the most impressive italian side we still had the quality to win. in qualifying and friendlies we played well in both defence and offence but it seemed the occassion of euro put donadoni in a shell. maybe this was compounded by the loss to the dutch, who knows. but i do think that donadoni was not outcoached by his opposition rather himself. now i can only pray for a quality new coach and a much needed youth movement.

one positive i take out of this tournament was the play of giorgio chiellini. he was unreal today vs the potent spanish attack who we made invisible. i can only pray he keeps up this play because the options in central defence for the future are bleak behind him and andrea barzagli.

I hope that when you say "this debacle of a tournament" you're talking about Italy's performance, because Euro 2008 has been pretty much exciting in my view, far better than the last WC and all sides remaining play positive football, even Turkey (when the stoppage time comes...).

 

[$teauA]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

For once fair play comes out on top. I hope Di Natale fully felt that miss, the c*nt, maybe that will teach him a lesson or two about diving like a shameless bitch which the whole Italian team were (with a few exceptions).

Congrats to Spain!

 

[modena_10]

i don't know why people are hating on di natale. when he went down with his "injury", and obviously i use the word injury lightly, he was obviously tackled late, just as david silva was. he took a knee right into his thigh, they even showed it again in slow motion. lucky it wasn't a charlie horse.

and again why are the italians being singled out for diving. torres and villa were shameful bitches just like any italian player who embelished, yet for some reason people single out italy and forget the rest. btw, it was villa who took the dispicable dive in the box and was rightly booked.

and the whole italy scoring late and being lucky is humorous at best.

 

[Zakov]

OK, we all know about the Italians playing 10 men behind the ball so why all this talk about both teams not wanting to take chances, bla bla bla? Believe me Spain are not Italy. we have the talent to take it to people. We don't sit back and hang out. C'mon, you can take 10 strangers from the streets and line them up behind the ball and chances are theyll defend decently! Italy doesnt know how to play another way. IMO, they are not talented enough to play a flowing short pass technical game. They showed up wanting pk's and they got it. I think its time to realize that their catennacio style is way outdated and does an overall diservice to football fans everywhere.

On another note, I am surprised there isnt more talk about that son of a (k)unt ref! I mean, he was either 1, paid off by Italy or 2, just absolute rubbish! Either way, he doesn't deserve to ever officiate a half important match anymore. Perhaps working in a pub league, but thats it. He nearly caused us the game! Sorry, but we had at the very least, 1 penalty that was ignored. I was appauled by his appointment for this match.

look man, u've already won, at least try to celebrate more rather than complain about past decisions. What goes around comes around, the Italians paid the price for going for the penalty shoot-out(which was their gameplan).
But I have to say the two best chances fell to Italy, who were defending luckily fate denied them a goal.
Congrats Spaniards, u guys suffered long enough but there's still an incredible team to come.

cheers

 

[locco]

Hope Russia will win EURO 2008 . They diserve more than Spain .

 

[Jaboldinho]

Di Natale... Man what a bitch. I was so happy to see him miss the penalty.

Glad that Spain won, but they're gonna have a hard time trying to beat Russia. Hopefully they don't underestimate them because of the first match. The Russians will definitely be fired up for the rematch, should be a good one.

 

[Yossarian]

Even though we've had our past differences, Modena speaks the truth here, man. I'm mystified as to why the Italians are being solely condemned for flopping considering the fact that the Spaniards were the more egregious and flagrant of the two by a wide margin. Everytime they got within inches of the box, they were flopping heavily without fail and instantly petitioning the refs for a penalty.....I mean, look at that backwards dive that Ramos did on that corner kick chance....as much as I love the kid, when I saw him noticeably seeking out a penalty like that, I wanted to take a razor to my throat.....I was that revolted......A lot of folks out there just have deep-seated, bordering on the psychotic level of hatred for the Italian NT, I suppose.


Anyway, enough of that.....for a Spain/Italy clash, the game was comparatively clean and without much drama and deceitfulness.


In the end, the Spaniards were by far the better squad. They were the aggressors and the architects of the more dangerous and meaningful goalscoring opportunities. It was pretty obvious to distinguish who wanted to end the game in regular time and who was content to settle it in penalties.

Donadoni's choice in starters was horrible, and as a result, their attack was generally third-rate while the Spaniards were full of vigor and imagination, I thought. It was really strange to watch someone who was soo intelligent and offensively gifted as a player be so unimaginative and foolish as a coach. Why was Perrotta stupidly slotted in Totti's position when he's only a holding midfielder/DM, why was Cassano even on the roster, let alone seeing some major playing minutes, what was with this easily subduable formation and why the **** didnt Quags get more playing time?


The overall superior squad is moving on. I don't think that Italy was deserving to get out of the group stages with that lousy effort yesterday, man.

MOTM.......Silva. I don't profess to know much about the Spanish league outside of Barca and Real, so I'm not too familiar with this kid, but he is just supremely gifted, man. He was wreaking great havoc on the Italians every time he got a whiff of the ball....he's explosive, he's flair-filled and just so awesome to watch, man....reminds me a lot of Modric both in his stature and immense skill level.

 

[Lean]

i don't know why people are hating on di natale. when he went down with his "injury", and obviously i use the word injury lightly, he was obviously tackled late, just as david silva was. he took a knee right into his thigh, they even showed it again in slow motion. lucky it wasn't a charlie horse.

and again why are the italians being singled out for diving. torres and villa were shameful bitches just like any italian player who embelished, yet for some reason people single out italy and forget the rest. btw, it was villa who took the dispicable dive in the box and was rightly booked.

and the whole italy scoring late and being lucky is humorous at best.

Di Natale was injured off the field and he got inside the pitch so the Spanish would kick the ball out of play, that's why. As for Villa, it didnt look like a dive, nor it was a penalty. For me he lost his balance and fell.