Italy is miles ahead of where they were last year, but they still have many miles to go before they can seriously compete with the Netherlands and Spain.
They would have a very hard time with netherlands, mainly because of one thing.
Pace. And I'm not talking about straight line pace either, although they would lose to most of the players on the Netherlands if it were a foot race.
I'm talking about coutner attacking pace, especially with players such as Sneijder who is as good as anyone at playing a long ball over the opposition's defense.
And this is coming from one of the biggest Italy supporters here.
Oh, and stop bringing Giovinco into every damn thread.