Courtesy of Sweden beating France 2-0, England now find themselves set for a quarterfinal tie against Italy. Whilst this looks a lot more balanced than if we were to play Spain I’d like to turn your attention towards comments made by former professional footballer Luther Blisset in the week on Sky Sports. He said from looking at England against Ukraine we’d much rather play Spain than Italy. He has a point.
Although the best team in the world in terms of passing and build up, Spains defence is quite suspect. The two centre backs Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos lack an aerial presence something which England could exploit through the “Stoke” way playing route one football to Andy Carroll and hoping for the best. Croatia proved Spain can be outplayed and were very unlucky not to do so, a 90th minute pass across goal by Iniesta to Jesus Navas who was tasked with a finish, Stewart Downing could’ve finished, separating the teams in the final group match.
Italy are one of the strongest teams at this years Euros defensively, conceding only 2 goals in qualifying and scoring 20. Led by the experienced Gianlugi Buffon arguably still up there with the greatest goalkeepers in the world the Italian defence has looked strong so far, conceding only 3 goals in the group stages. A tough task then?
Compared to the 2010 world cup winning squad however, their current squad looks like a cheap market knock off of the real thing. Now lacking the experience of Fabio Cannavaro, Gennaro Gattuso, Fabio Camoranesi, Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta their replacements are nowhere near the standard these players where. Although 2 years seems quite a small amount of time, the effect it would have on players like Pirlo for example in terms of fitness would be quite high.
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England to win v Italy and more than 2.5 goals scored total in game – 5,00
Penalty awarded (to either side) during England v Italy – 3,40
Although England are through to the next stage, our style of football has been appalling. Here we are in the quarter finals, whispers building in the media of a possible win for the England team but I can’t help but feel they have been blinded by patriotism. All three teams in the group stages have outplayed us completely. The frustrating thing is we aren’t even attempting to play football and when we do our passing play has the fluidity of cement, James Milner looks like he’d struggle to get into Biggleswade under 7’s girls team and bar the goal against Sweden Danny Welbeck has been non existent. We seem set on playing the “Chelsea way” as its now been dubbed on account of their European success, 10 men behind the ball and play on the counter.
So how do we beat Italy? Their full backs are very attack minded and this would be an area England should look to exploit, perhaps starting Theo Walcott above Milner for a bit of pace down the right. The wingers will play an important part in this match Italy reportedly playing a 4-3-1-2 meaning they will have little width and therefore cover for the full backs wont be as necessary. I’d like to see England take the game to Italy and try and outplay them, particularly with the talent we’ve got, Steven Gerrard in particular a beautiful passer of the ball and certainly on form so far this tournament. I
would prefer Carroll over Welbeck to provide an aerial threat and to look to knock down the ball to Wayne Rooney who as we area all aware is a clinical finisher. The pre match attention is on Joe Hart who both Buffon and Gerrard have hailed as having the potential to be the best goalkeeper in the world so it would be interesting to see how he will perform with all eyes on him. Balottelli will also be closely monitored with many people questioning his short temper and how this will fare in a high adrenaline match like the quarter finals.
Mario Balotelli scores and Italy wins – 4,80
Wayne Rooney scores and England wins – 4,80
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