Spain will fail to qualify from their group

Damn before entering the thread, I guessed the number of '' to be 3 .. I lost

If only England were in that group to complete the holy Italian trinity

The Fonz wrote:

Grande_Milano wrote:sciacca acknowledging Abate? the world will never be the same again

But, Spain will progress. Ireland and Croatia will be murdered. Ofc Spain may lose if Cassillas is in the net. But, I think DeL Boss reallises how much Reina/Valdes are superior

Ireland under Trap have played Italy 3 times and guess what haven't lost once..

1 win and 2 draws..

Murdered my ass !!!

Well...

Two of those games were under Lippi.

First game in Bari... when Italy were a man down since the 10th minute... which wasn't even a red. Pazzini's elbow was not intentional... and it shouldn't of been a straight. That being said, when Iaquinta scored early on, we had to keep the lead throughout the whole game which was almost impossible.

The second game, we came back from a 2-0 to 2-2 with Camorensi and Gilardino. Notice the old players haha?

And fine, against a friendly you did beat us, fair enough. But Trap is a genius.. he knows Italy to well. He closed down Pirlo and closed all spaces. Giovinco had no space at all, and our creativity lacked. That also being said, we did play with a majority of our second team. Guys like Cassano didn't play.

Excuses could be. Though, it's justified that we played you with a shitty squad from Lippi and in a friendly so.

But then again, Ireland is a sick team and to be honest I see them and Italy going through.

babun1024 wrote:

The Fonz wrote:

Grande_Milano wrote:sciacca acknowledging Abate? the world will never be the same again

But, Spain will progress. Ireland and Croatia will be murdered. Ofc Spain may lose if Cassillas is in the net. But, I think DeL Boss reallises how much Reina/Valdes are superior

Ireland under Trap have played Italy 3 times and guess what haven't lost once..

1 win and 2 draws..

Murdered my ass !!!

I forgot to add, Italy are also in danger. Croatia have a good record agaist them

The last two times we played.

1) Croatia vs Italy in 2002. Where Italy got screwed and had one or two disallowed goals in that game, WHICH WERE GOOD GOALS.

2) In 2006, after the World Cup, our squad completely changed... and we faced them in a friendly so.

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:

babun1024 wrote:

The Fonz wrote:

Grande_Milano wrote:sciacca acknowledging Abate? the world will never be the same again

But, Spain will progress. Ireland and Croatia will be murdered. Ofc Spain may lose if Cassillas is in the net. But, I think DeL Boss reallises how much Reina/Valdes are superior

Ireland under Trap have played Italy 3 times and guess what haven't lost once..

1 win and 2 draws..

Murdered my ass !!!

I forgot to add, Italy are also in danger. Croatia have a good record agaist them

The last two times we played.

1) Croatia vs Italy in 2002. Where Italy got screwed and had one or two disallowed goals in that game, WHICH WERE GOOD GOALS.

2) In 2006, after the World Cup, our squad completely changed... and we faced them in a friendly so.

Excuses...
Truth to be told, Croatia is a very physical side with some technical players. Italy has always trouble with such teams. Spain on the other hand is perfect for Italy

Oh please excuses, go check what happens in 2002 vs Crotia

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:Pirlo > Xavi
Buffon > Cassials
De Rossi > Iniesta
Chiellini > Busquets
Balotelli > Torres

no, not at all... not even close.

And you shouldn't compare Chiellini with Busquets.

Marchisio >

Spain is always meat for Italian teams. Comfortable draw or win is a must result. Breaking down their possession football is what Italian teams do best.

So yea, Italy's group mentality will show against Italian-like Ireland and Croatia which I also cautious about. 9 points would ve be ideal and instantly put Italy in a pole position for the Euro. Realistically though, taking in account all group problems, 2 wins in the group (Ireland+someone)

I do not understand how people can use a friendly to judge the difference between two sides.

Rest assured, if Spain bring their A game to the Euro, no matter how good Italy are, Spain will win. Italy can sit back and counter all the time, it won't matter. Spain have a better midfield and 8 times out of 10, Spain are going to win.

Spain will eat Italy for breakfast and remaining for lunch..

Adit wrote:Spain will eat Italy for breakfast and remaining for lunch..

Lawls like they did in 2008, with 2 goal moments that were Italy's anyway

kiranr wrote:
I do not understand how people can use a friendly to judge the difference between two sides.

Rest assured, if Spain bring their A game to the Euro, no matter how good Italy are, Spain will win. Italy can sit back and counter all the time, it won't matter. Spain have a better midfield and 8 times out of 10, Spain are going to win.

1) Nobody is basing this out of a friendly, please find a post where I said that.
2) Really? No matter how good... Gee. It took them a shootout to win didn't it.
3) Oh dear, they have a better midfield?
Pirlo > Xavi
De Rossi is untouchable.
4) 8/10? Source please.

Lol I love how people always underrate Italy, even this year after destroying everyone in the qualifiers and barely letting in goals.

Alright guys, i was exaggerating. But i did not like the way you guys were saying Spain won't qualify from the group or that Italy will beat them comfortably. If anything, it is going to be one awesome and tight game. I think Italy is awesome and they are one of my favourite teams. They have a really good team for this Euro, no doubt.

p.s. No Sciacca, Pirlo is not better than Xavi, not according to my opinion anyway.

Made this call 30 seconds after the draw lol. Didn't wanna post it cuz I knew it would start a pointless argument. I'm calling Italy wins the group, Ireland second, Spain third, Croatia fourth. Of course that's just my unpopular opinion.

Also saying that Ireland qualifies, but scores only one goal in the group stages. 1-0, 0-0, 0-0. What's the payout on that?

kiranr wrote:Alright guys, i was exaggerating. But i did not like the way you guys were saying Spain won't qualify from the group or that Italy will beat them comfortably. If anything, it is going to be one awesome and tight game. I think Italy is awesome and they are one of my favourite teams. They have a really good team for this Euro, no doubt.

p.s. No Sciacca, Pirlo is not better than Xavi, not according to my opinion anyway.

Of course you where exaggerating, but as well saying none sense.
You don't have to like it, we've backed up what we had to say about Spain. We feel it's not their time anymore.
Who said Italy will beat them comfortably? Surely though our tactics fit best agasint Spain.
Yes, Italy is awesome and yes they do have a good team for the Euro's.

ErPupone wrote:Made this call 30 seconds after the draw lol. Didn't wanna post it cuz I knew it would start a pointless argument. I'm calling Italy wins the group, Ireland second, Spain third, Croatia fourth. Of course that's just my unpopular opinion.

Also saying that Ireland qualifies, but scores only one goal in the group stages. 1-0, 0-0, 0-0. What's the payout on that?

Mike, I was at school lol with my friends... when there was a presentation, we popped out an Ipod and followed the draw. We said the exact same thing.

Saying Italy tactics are the best counter to Spain's football is at best an opinion.

If Spain get their tactics right in the Euro, they are going to be very very difficult to beat. Del Bosque has to sort out the striker issue and ensure adequate width in the attacking third. Once that happens, Spain have a very good chance of topping the group.

Ireland coming second in the group? I just dont see it. It is nice to fantasize about it, but things dont always turn out that way!

Their tactics are right, it's Tiki-Taka. Which means, it leaves lots of place for our tactics to go through, Italy struggle against those who counter attack, we saw that with Faroe Islands, Ireland, and Uruguay. Against the likes of Spain, or teams who play attacking football like Germany we wounded up ont top. So it's not an opinion, it's reality. That's how both sides of the tactics funtcion on the pitch.

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:Their tactics are right, it's Tiki-Taka. Which means, it leaves lots of place for our tactics to go through, Italy struggle against those who counter attack, we saw that with Faroe Islands, Ireland, and Uruguay. Against the likes of Spain, or teams who play attacking football like Germany we wounded up ont top. So it's not an opinion, it's reality. That's how both sides of the tactics funtcion on the pitch.

Firstly Tiki-taka is a strategy or rather a setup and there can be several tactics that can be used to implement the strategy. Any team can be sound tactically. For example, Barcelona's sound tactics are the reason they win most of the time. Similarly, when Spain get their tactics right relative to the opposing team, most likely they will win.

Im aware of that... how do you think Italy won their last four world cups. All with Catenaccio. Catenaccio is one sort of style of strategic play, Tiki-Taka is another.

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:Im aware of that... how do you think Italy won their last four world cups. All with Catenaccio. Catenaccio is one sort of style of strategic play, Tiki-Taka is another.

I agree. Spain have been struggling in the past few matches because they have not got their tactics right and players have been misfiring. If they manage to sort that out by the Euro, then they will qualify and will be favourites for the title. If they don't, then they might not make it. It has nothing to do with Italian style being a perfect counter to Spanish style.

No, the reason why Spain have been struggling is because they are tactically broken. Other teams have found ways to break through their play, sadly... what they do is not real football. Pass, Pass, Pass. That's it. Sadly, now there's many ways to stop it. Pressing them deep and agressively already proves them down.

Spain is full of big game performers. they will step up and win Euro again imo.

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:No, the reason why Spain have been struggling is because they are tactically broken. Other teams have found ways to break through their play, sadly... what they do is not real football. Pass, Pass, Pass. That's it. Sadly, now there's many ways to stop it. Pressing them deep and agressively already proves them down.

They have made mistakes tactically and that can be fixed with some bold decisions and hard work. If Spain improves tactically, then they will stand a very good chance to win the title. No doubt about it as they have very high quality players!

Camurrìa.Sto.Stronzo wrote:Im aware of that... how do you think Italy won their last four world cups. All with Catenaccio. Catenaccio is one sort of style of strategic play, Tiki-Taka is another.

**Neo-Catenaccio