This blog stay for another extra few days as the Azzurri made it to the Quaterfinals of the Euro 2008. I hope this blog can really made it until the Azzurri crowning moments!

In beating France 2-0, the Azzurri secured their place in quaterfinals, thanks to the Dutch victory against Romania. Even with a different team, the Romanians can’t match the Dutch’s might.

As for the Azzurri’s victory, luck played a big part in it. While Pirlo’s penalty was a touch of class and calmness, de Rossi’s goal was the creation of luck. If not for Thierry Henry’s role in deflecting the course of the ball, that shot is unlikely to be a goal. With Ribery injury plus Abidal’s sending off plus Nasri’s 16 minutes appearance, all these sums up France’s ill-fated night.

As for the Azzurri, one major concern remained: Toni still haven’t open his scoring. He had wasted a dozen of chances in this 3 matches, and looked increasingly frustrated. If Toni still unable to score against Spain in the first half, I hope the coach can substitute him, and give Marco Boriello a chance.

The 2nd major concern in the match against Spain is the suspension of Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo has been the inspiration in creating chances after chances for Toni, only for Toni to wasted them. His visionary passes will surely be missed, and we can only hope Daniele de Rossi can step up to create that bit of vision and classy passes to his teammates like Pirlo did.

The 3rd major concern is the defense. And I mean the defense in general, not just the defenders. I noticed that Italy play very deep. When they lose the ball, they will go back and defend in zone. This concept is fine, but they defend too deep that almost every players is in the box. If they for one moment are careless, they will be paying a huge price: a penalty to their opponent. If only they played a little more forward, they can surely get into tackle to win back the ball, without having to pay the ultimate price. 

As for the central defensive pairing, Panuuci and Chellini had done well for the last 2 matches, and should continue. Continuity is very vital to the central defensive partnership.