Italy v Ukraine

eirebhoy

Italy (probable): Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Grosso, Perrotta, Pirlo, Gattuso, Totti, Toni, Gilardino.

Ukraine (probable): Shovkovskiy, Nesmachniy, Rusol, Sviderskiy, Tymoschuk, Shelayev, Gusev, Rebrov, Kalinichenko, Vorobey, Shevchenko.

I think/hope we could see a backlash after the foreign media saying they play a defensive game. Ukraine haven't conceded a goal since that 4-0 defeat to Spain and even though Spain got very lucky with everything that day, I fancy Italy to win this match 2 or 3 nil.

I've read comments from pretty much every Italian press conference since Monday and they're certainly up for it, more so than any match so far it seems. Totti's due a good performance and I'll be very suprised if he doesn't produce one after the weight lifted off his shoulders on Monday. Toni is due a bloody goal. He must have had 5 or 6 clear cut chances so far that any other day he'd have put away. If Totti plays well and Toni gets a goal I'll be confident of Italy going all the way, especially with Nesta to come back.

Mr. Presentable

[4-3-2-1] Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Grosso; Gattuso,
Pirlo, Perrotta; Camoranesi, Totti; Toni

Attractive Nun

Looking forward to this, hopefully Italy will up the tempo. Their somewhat defensive style-of-play (I think it's exagerrated) would usually make me dislike them, but they have so many players that I love for some reason. Luca Toni is a hero. Gattuso is the greatest man alive. Pirlo is well underrated by many. And Zambrotta is just the perfect fullback. As for Cannavaro... the man is a legend.

Pepe LeFrits

Please please PLEASE let this be a good game.

fade2black

It won't be.

DRAW/DRAW

ukraine to win on penalties.

That's right baby.

Rikand

1929 BST: The Ukraine squad have been given a bonus of £4.3m to share for getting to the last eight. What price a semi-final spot against Germany in Dortmund on Tuesday?


Me and the BBC Text Commentary are set for an enjoyable evening!

bohsman

1st of many.

eirebhoy

Guess who's my captain in my FF team! Excellent goal.

Lex Luthor

eirebhoy wrote:

Guess who's my captain in my FF team! Excellent goal.

in what league?

Ruu_Old

Ouch Buffon is probably seeing stars after that knock on the head, bad goal post you!

A Dub in Glasgo

Unlucky for the Ukraine, 2-0 down

jArgHA

eirebhoy wrote:

Italy (probable): Buffon, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Barzagli, Grosso, Perrotta, Pirlo, Gattuso, Totti, Toni, Gilardino.

Ukraine (probable): Shovkovskiy, Nesmachniy, Rusol, Sviderskiy, Tymoschuk, Shelayev, Gusev, Rebrov, Kalinichenko, Vorobey, Shevchenko.

I think/hope we could see a backlash after the foreign media saying they play a defensive game. Ukraine haven't conceded a goal since that 4-0 defeat to Spain and even though Spain got very lucky with everything that day, I fancy Italy to win this match 2 or 3 nil.

I've read comments from pretty much every Italian press conference since Monday and they're certainly up for it, more so than any match so far it seems. Totti's due a good performance and I'll be very suprised if he doesn't produce one after the weight lifted off his shoulders on Monday. Toni is due a bloody goal. He must have had 5 or 6 clear cut chances so far that any other day he'd have put away. If Totti plays well and Toni gets a goal I'll be confident of Italy going all the way, especially with Nesta to come back.

pretty fine prediction there eirebhoy, currently 3-0 with 20 mins to go, toni getting 2

A Dub in Glasgo

Now 3, Toni gets his second

eirebhoy

Lex Luthor wrote:

in what league?

Metro.

GrumPy

Damn Ukrainians, spend too much time trafficing prostitutes, and travelling to Ireland on floating doors so they can work in Super Macs.

but they gave it a decent effort in the second half.

Lemlin

Fair play to Liam Brady for keeping up with RTE's poor pronunciations.

Lippi just became Leapy

Anam

Lemlin wrote:

Fair play to Liam Brady for keeping up with RTE's poor pronunciations.

Lippi just became Leapy

That is how it is supposed to be pronounced afaik.

mike65

Could'nt be arsed tbh.

Mike.

bohsman

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Damn Ukrainians, spend too much time trafficing prostitutes, and travelling to Ireland on floating doors so they can work in Super Macs.

but they gave it a decent effort in the second half.

People have been banned for far less.

GrumPy

It's a joke man, sorry if it's in bad form!

Lemlin

Anam wrote:

That is how it is supposed to be pronounced afaik.

Its pronunced like Lippy, not Leapy. He's not Leapy the rabbit!

Dont be at yourself

It's pronounced Leapy, or close to it, actually. So scream my italian friends any time he's shown on the telly, anyway!

Big Chief

in honesty i felt ukraine were unlucky in this game, so many opportunities but on the day it just wasnt theres and italy took every opportunity given to them. The 3rd goal (and even the 2nd to an extent) was just a nail in the coffin to an unfortunate ukraine side.

There keeper also could have saved the first goal, and the defending and man marking of toni was abysmal at best.

Grats Italy i suppose, and looking forward to semi final

Lemlin

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

It's pronounced Leapy, or close to it, actually. So scream my italian friends any time he's shown on the telly, anyway!

So you mean Liam got the pronunciation right and everyone else is wrong? Surely these are unchartered waters for RTE

Rikand

Lemlin wrote:

So you mean Liam got the pronunciation right and everyone else is wrong? Surely these are unchartered waters for RTE

His Italian Friends agree with Brady too...so i dont see how that counts as "everyone"

eirebhoy

By the end of the match I didn't know what Italian players were playing where. 4 full backs in the same team.

I'm happy. Toni finally scored, Totti played quite well (4 assists and 1 goal so far), another clean sheet and no suspensions. Nesta will hopefully be back for the Germany match. Italy winning this WC is make or break for me. It wins me my outright bet, it most likely wins me £200 in a prediction comp and it'll probably win me a bit more if Cannavaro gets POTT. I got Cannavaro at 140/1 a couple of days ago on betfair, he's now 20/1.

Pirlo has to get into the games more, he's the holding midfielder and was pretty anonymous last night.

Quote of the day by Gattuso over an article in a German paper:

“I don’t know if the editor of Der Spiegel has some sort of problem because he got beaten up by an Italian as a child or his wife has been cheating on him with an Italian Stallion. I can’t explain it otherwise!"