France v Italy

mike65

The starting 11s

France: Coupet, Abidal, Gallas, Makelele, Benzema, Govou, Henry, Evra, Clerc, Toulalan, Ribery

Italy: Buffon (C), Panucci, Grosso, Chiellini, Gattuso, Toni, De Rossi, Cassano, Zambrotta, Perrotta, Pirlo

France going for it tonight.

Mike.

~Rebel~

i like the look of the italians team more, fancy them now i think.

tonights betting is a double on Italy and for Paraguay to continue their form and beat Bolivia away on the 18th. Bolivia lost their last home game 2-0 to chile, odds for paraguay to win are 7-5, not bad.

Raskolnikov

Chiellini over Materazzi, Cassano over De Natale and De Rossi over Ambrosini.

Finally, Donadoni has picked his strongest team. I fancy Italy for this now.

Sherifu

Come on the draw!

MementoMori

Nil-nil written all over it - Ha

Dommench seems to have stumbled towards a bit of a stronger line-up, but I just fancy the Italians to do this. Header from Toni 1-0

Death or Glory

Ribery f*cked

Sherifu

Penalty Italy. 1-0

Abidal sent off.

MementoMori

What was Abidal doing there?

Awful awful awful

Bringing on Boumsong :pac::pac::pac:

Au revoir les Blues

Pigman II

Nasri off, Domenech is clearly insane now.

Reganio 2

Did Nasri only come on for Ribery or did he start?

Ruu_Old

French will be lucky to get to half time only 1 down.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

What the **** is he doin taking Nasri off after he's only been on 10 minutes? Take Toulalan off to get the extra defender ffs! How does he expect them to score with no creativity in midfield(apart from Govou maybe)

Sherifu

Toni wasted two great chances. Maybe the Gods are helping France

Boumsong to score...

MementoMori

How many chances does Toni want?

Nasri only came on for Ribery

Au revoir Monsieur Dommench

Pigman II

Reganio 2 wrote: »

Did Nasri only come on for Ribery or did he start?

Sub for Ribery. Nasri only lasted about 15mins himself.

Pepe LeFrits

Domenech is not all there, this is nothing new.

Abidal, what a player. Gael Clichy must be watching this game in pure disbelief.

Reganio 2

He must have been injured then surely? Not watching the match, only flicking onto the live stream on rte.ie every now and again and seen Nasri going off and Boumsong on and looked at the score and wasn't sure, thought it was maybe a defender that I didn't know.

Pigman II

Reganio 2 wrote: »

Sergio Ramos is Paul McShane on steroids.

Paul McShane is Gary Doherty on rogaine.

Dave!

Yeeshk.... Gattuso booked now. Both himself and Pirlo will miss the 1/4 finals if they get through!

mike65

Another Italian goes in the book and will miss the quarters.

The Dutchies have scored.

Mike.

Dave!

Benzema's having a mare

unkel

What happens if France equalise? 2 points for Rom / It / Fra each

mike65

Thats that.

de Rossi

Mike.

Ruu_Old

Game over now.

Chong

I am happy to see France go out dont like them at all.

Sherifu

There goes Romanias' chances. Although Anelka is coming on...

France score two, Romania go through...

leninbenjamin

first bit of luck to go their way in the tournament?

game's a complete anti-climax.

edit: lol Anelka on now. Govou off, Domenech clearly wants to isolate his forwards from his midfield even further now... good riddance Domenech. hope it's swift.

Dave!

ffs shut up about Buffon's save, RTÉ!!!

"amazing", "magical", "physics-defying"

Benzema shot btw

Would Deschamps manage France do ye suppose?

MementoMori

Tasty effort from Benzema there - i thought he's been France's best performer tonight

Good save by Buffon

mike65

Deschamps has certainly been mentioned, they should move heaven and earth for Wenger.

Mike.

Sherifu

mike65 wrote: »

Deschamps has certainly been mentioned, they should move heaven and earth for Wenger.

Mike.

Would he be interested?

pickarooney

Is there a glass barrier 15 metres in and parallel to the touchline on each side? Narrowest game I've ever seen.

Sherifu

Spain will destroy Italy.

pickarooney

Sherifu wrote: »

Spain will destroy Italy.

A tenner, and anyone who's ever seen both teams in a major tournament, says they won't!

Bounty Hunter

Sherifu wrote: »

Spain will destroy Italy.

especially without Gattuso and Pirlo.

Domenech has to be sacked. hopefully donadoni will stay on now after the tournament and Italy continue to look as strong as they have in this tournament in their next one.

Sherifu

pickarooney wrote: »

A tenner, and anyone who's ever seen both teams in a major tournament, says they won't!

We shall see.

Bubs101

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

especially without Gattuso and Pirlo.

De Rossi and Aquilani do play together at club level very effectively. I certainly wouldn't rule them out, and if Toni finds his luck I have no doubt who will win

Drag00n79

I fancy Italy to knock Spain out.

Mr.Nice Guy

Without Pirlo you'd have to fancy Spain to dominate the midfield play and Torres and Villa won't miss the chances Toni has been missing. I can see Spain winning by a two goal margin.

Bubs101

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Without Pirlo you'd have to fancy Spain to dominate the midfield play and Torres and Villa won't miss the chances Toni has been missing. I can see Spain winning by a two goal margin.

I believe you are forgetting that the Italians are winners and the Spanish are bottlers. More important than any kind of form or squad

invincibleirish

Pirlo/Gattuso have had crappy seasons, Iniesta/Xavi havent had much better, I think Spain with their strikers should overcome that shaky Italian defence. If Spain are ever going to beat Italy in a big tournament then now is the time, but as mentioned they are bottlers.

AS for France, Domenech is surely gone, what a disaster, he fluked France to the 2006 WCF but the man is a joke. No idea of who to pick, unsettled team, wrong decisions etc. good riddance!

5/1 Domenech next Spurs manager

unkel

pickarooney wrote: »

A tenner, and anyone who's ever seen both teams in a major tournament, says they won't!

+1

Spain rarely gets past quarter final stage. Italy almost always does

Sherifu

Bubs101 wrote: »

I believe you are forgetting that the Italians are winners and the Spanish are bottlers. More important than any kind of form or squad

I'm detecting slight bias there I don't recall Spain ever having such quality strikers as Villa and Torres before. I'll be happy to see the back of the Italians if Spain do the job. Toni is a BFG.

Mr.Nice Guy

Bubs101 wrote: »

I believe you are forgetting that the Italians are winners and the Spanish are bottlers. More important than any kind of form or squad

Well they didn't look like winners against the Dutch. :pac:

I think the Spanish tradition of bottling major tournaments ends this year.

estebancambias

Delighted for Italy.

For me they are playing better than they did in the World Cup.

I hate Ambrosini with all my life. He shouldn't get near the pitch.

Cassano was very good I thought. De Rossi was good but(sort of random here) for the first time I understand what people like Marcotti mean when they say he's a 'poor mans Roy Keane'

Some of his passing can be so stupid.

Mr. Presentable

Sherifu wrote: »

I don't recall Spain ever having such quality strikers as Villa and Torres before.

Never heard of Raul? Butragueno, no? De Stefano, Guardiola, Morientes?

Toni is, as you say, a blunderbus.

Italy will be too wise for Spain, though it may be decided in a shootout.

Mr. Presentable

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Well they didn't look like winners against the Dutch. :pac:

I think the Spanish tradition of bottling major tournaments ends this year.

I just think having two strikers is not enough to constitute a team.

Tusky

nipplenuts wrote: »

I just think having two strikers is not enough to constitute a team.

:eek:

Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Senna, Alonso, Ramos, Castillas, Reina...etc

Fanny Cradock

Ugh! Well that match didn't live up to expectations. The sooner Italy go out the better.

Bubs101

Tusky wrote: »

:eek:

Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Senna, Alonso, Ramos, Castillas, Reina...etc

So this is the first time Spain have had a talented team? They always have one, they always bottle it.

stick-dan

It'ss be spain no doubt,