France vs Italy preview

Posted on | June 17, 2008 | No Comments

The group of Death will live up to its name tonight. Whatever be the outcome of the match between France and Italy, Euro 2008 will have at least one big name casualty. And one could become two if Romania overcome the Netherlands in the other game.

France kept pace with the Dutch till the first half, and then simply lost it as the Dutch unleashed their pacy, counter attacking style on the ageing French. While Italy are not exactly in the same league pace wise, they do have some brilliant technical players. Patrick Vieira will not feature in this game either. Sagnol, Toulalan and Makelele have picked up one yellow each. Domenech may give start to Ben Nasri, the youngest member of France’s 23 member squad. France’s attack boasts of many high profile games, but they have managed to score just one in this tournament, while the rampaging Dutch have seven to their name. France’s forwars are due for a big one, and with the Italian backline looking frail in the absence of Cannavaro, this might be their day.

Italy were saved by goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon against Romania. There will be a sense of deja vu for the world champions, who were knocked out of Euro 2004 despite winning their final group game against Bulgaria, just because Sweden and Denmark played out a 2-2 draw. Italy’s fate is not in their hands, but they need to focus on the task at hand, and hope that the Dutch do them a favour. Italy were not able to beat France in qualifying for this tournament, losing 3-1 and drawing 0-0 in the two games. Roberto Donadoni made five changes to the squad that lost to Holland, but his side was unable to break Romania down. In such a scenario, the former Milan midfielder may have no choice but to let loose the fiery Antonio Cassano. Del Piero might drop to the bench. Another problem for Italy is their midfield. Will Donadoni persist with the trio of Ambrosini, Gattuso and Pirlo ? Or does he take De Rossi and Perotta. We may also see Di Natale get a start ahead of Camoranesi. Zambrotta, Luca Toni, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi are all on a yellow.

Should France and Italy draw, and Romania avoid defeat against the Dutch, we will see a penalty shootout for determining who comes third. Both the teams will be keen to attack and an early goal will definitely give the scorer an advantage. France to win this 3-1, with goals from Henry, Benzema, Nasri. Toni to score for the Italians.

Related posts:

1. France vs Netherlands preview
2. Italy vs Romania preview
3. France vs Italy
4. Netherlands vs Romania preview
5. France vs Romania preview

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