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Zahovic: 'Slovenia will win easily!'
Slovenia legend Zlatko Zahovic has been bruising in his assessment of the Italy squad. “You’ve only got two or three good players.”
The two sides go head-to-head in the Euro 2012 qualifier on Friday evening and the Gazzetta dello Sport asked Zahovic for his predictions.
“We’ll win easily on Friday, 2-0. More than that, I’ll say Slovenia will have 70 per cent possession. Am I exaggerating? No,” said the ex-hitman.
“I like Italian football and respect it, but at the moment you’ve got lots of problems. Your club sides are almost all foreign players.
“Cesare Prandelli, who is a great Coach, struggles to call up a full squad because so few Italians play for the big sides.
“On top of that, while our Slovenian youth academies have improved a great deal, you only have two or three good players,” continued Zahovic.
“Once there were the likes of Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio. Now you are impressed by Andrea Ranocchia. He wouldn’t play in Slovenia. He’s just too slow.
“I can assure you that if Ranocchia does play against us, all the Slovenian players will run at him to take advantage of that weakness.”
Slovenia legend Zlatko Zahovic has been bruising in his assessment of the Italy squad. “You’ve only got two or three good players.”
The two sides go head-to-head in the Euro 2012 qualifier on Friday evening and the Gazzetta dello Sport asked Zahovic for his predictions.
“We’ll win easily on Friday, 2-0. More than that, I’ll say Slovenia will have 70 per cent possession. Am I exaggerating? No,” said the ex-hitman.
“I like Italian football and respect it, but at the moment you’ve got lots of problems. Your club sides are almost all foreign players.
“Cesare Prandelli, who is a great Coach, struggles to call up a full squad because so few Italians play for the big sides.
“On top of that, while our Slovenian youth academies have improved a great deal, you only have two or three good players,” continued Zahovic.
“Once there were the likes of Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio. Now you are impressed by Andrea Ranocchia. He wouldn’t play in Slovenia. He’s just too slow.
“I can assure you that if Ranocchia does play against us, all the Slovenian players will run at him to take advantage of that weakness.”
I counted 9 Slovenians who play in Italy in the squad called for this qualifier.
I guess that 6-7 will start the match (Handanovic, Bacinovic, Birsa, Ilicic, Cesar, Jokic, maybe Andjelkovic).
Edit: Actually, as I suspected, Birsa still isn't in Serie A. He only signed for Genoa but will join them in the summer. He's a very good player, one of their team leaders, so it surprised me when I saw that he's a Genoa player and I haven't seen him play for them.
I guess that 6-7 will start the match (Handanovic, Bacinovic, Birsa, Ilicic, Cesar, Jokic, maybe Andjelkovic).
Edit: Actually, as I suspected, Birsa still isn't in Serie A. He only signed for Genoa but will join them in the summer. He's a very good player, one of their team leaders, so it surprised me when I saw that he's a Genoa player and I haven't seen him play for them.