Paul Pogba (203 Viewers)
- Thread starter Lo-Pan
- Start date
It's pretty simple:
Spain T
Croatia T
Ireland W
England W
Germany W
Spain L
That is not an easy group of games.
I thought it was good up to the obvious Spain game.
With England, Italy was unlucky and should have won before penalties.
We also played very well against a Spanish team in the group stage, that was at its absolute peak. Spain was pretty much unbeatable during this time. Croatia was a decent game. Mandzukic made things tough, but Pirlo hit a key FK.
Ireland was clearly an expected victory.
That Germany team was demonstrating the same dominance that it did this World Cup (arguably more, winning every game), and then we flat out beat them.
All an all, it was a strong performance. Prandelli's legacy will be his WC, but its not fair to forget his Euro efforts, which were pretty solid.
Spain T
Croatia T
Ireland W
England W
Germany W
Spain L
That is not an easy group of games.
I thought it was good up to the obvious Spain game.
With England, Italy was unlucky and should have won before penalties.
We also played very well against a Spanish team in the group stage, that was at its absolute peak. Spain was pretty much unbeatable during this time. Croatia was a decent game. Mandzukic made things tough, but Pirlo hit a key FK.
Ireland was clearly an expected victory.
That Germany team was demonstrating the same dominance that it did this World Cup (arguably more, winning every game), and then we flat out beat them.
All an all, it was a strong performance. Prandelli's legacy will be his WC, but its not fair to forget his Euro efforts, which were pretty solid.
You know what I mean. It was a win in penalties. They dominated the game anyways - made England look terrible. I know English fans that were flat out embarrassed. They were more embarrassed with the result in 2012 where they lost in penalties vs. their loss in this year's world cup.
Also, I strongly disagree with it just being Pirlo. The majority of the team played very well. And while Balotelli spear headed that victory, others such as Cassano played very well as well and was the reason for that first goal. I just can't rationalize discrediting getting through that group of teams in such a competitive tournament. Quite frankly, you can make that argument about the majority of Italy's tournament victories... The Azzurri hardly ever dominate but they find ways to win. 2006 was the same way, as was 1982.
Also, Germany always chokes against Italy. To my knowledge, they haven't won a competitive match ever against Italy. They've had friendly victories, but that's it (and I'm pretty sure those were decades ago).
The suns going to rise in the morning, the suns going to set in the evening, and Italy will beat Germany in every big tournament.
Also, I strongly disagree with it just being Pirlo. The majority of the team played very well. And while Balotelli spear headed that victory, others such as Cassano played very well as well and was the reason for that first goal. I just can't rationalize discrediting getting through that group of teams in such a competitive tournament. Quite frankly, you can make that argument about the majority of Italy's tournament victories... The Azzurri hardly ever dominate but they find ways to win. 2006 was the same way, as was 1982.
Also, Germany always chokes against Italy. To my knowledge, they haven't won a competitive match ever against Italy. They've had friendly victories, but that's it (and I'm pretty sure those were decades ago).
The suns going to rise in the morning, the suns going to set in the evening, and Italy will beat Germany in every big tournament.
Italy absolutely battered Germany as well, if not for Di Natale and Marchisio's poor finishing, that game would have ended 5-1. Italy played some pretty good football in that tournament. In the final (a tired) team with too many injuries against a superior team (and with 10 men for basically half of the game) was always going to end the way it did.
And I love the revisionism from some about Italy's performances at Euro 2012. Iirc they dominated the majority of the game against Spain (in the group stage) and were pretty unlucky not to win. It was pretty much the story of their tournament up until the semi final, they dominated every game they played but the finishing was woeful.
