People badmouthing Italy or revelling at their fall annoy me.

[Murfinator]

For me they represent a great sporting team proud to represent their country and enjoying to work with one another.

- I heard one of the commentators today criticizing Cannavaro for playing (in his opinion) one world cup too many and at this stage looking like he was only turning up to gather caps. Well umm...isnt that what every player should want to be doing? Trying to represent your country until the very end, it should be the managers call as to when that end is but unfortunately it very rarely works that way. Credit to Cannavaro for continuing to give his all when the legs had gone, a lesser player would have taken his world cup medal four years ago and fecked off at the age of 32.

- I've also heard people be critical of players age on the team. Its actually funny since few other countries would even have the luxury of even being able to select players in that age bracket since they'd all be retired from international soccer by now. Long may Buffon, Zambrotta, Gattuso etc want to play for their country regardless of age.

- At their defeat when France lost they sulked, their manager refused to shake hands, some of their players refused to even play in the first place. When Italy did their manager accepted all blame and their were tears from the likes of Quagliarella.

- Even read the likes of Gisueppe Rossi on twitter who didn't make the cut, he's not off in the bahamas enjoying his time away from the game he's following each and every Italian game closely wishing them all the best.

- And the passion they had in the anthem was pretty powerful.


Just my view but in a world where a lot of the top nations include plentiful international retirments, in-fighting French, English sulking at their support, Italy are definitely a team to be admired. Sad to see many happy to see them fail. :(

[John83]

In fairness, the Italians weren't sulking or fighting because those guys were left at home. Totti and Cassano might have made Evra and Rooney look good.

That said, mostly the reaction you're talking about is commentators filling time with banal insights (Cannavaro is too old - he'll be playing in the middle east next season - but he was also the second best defender Italy had available) and schadenfreude towards a big nation knocked out early.

[bennocelt]

For me they represent a great sporting team proud to represent their country and enjoying to work with one another.

-:(


Im just happy that I wont have to sit though any more matches with dodgy penos and basketball tackles called. Their defenders are the biggest jokers of the lot, give it large but fall like fairies when returned

[A N Mouse]

Im just happy that I wont have to sit though any more matches with dodgy penos and basketball tackles called. Their defenders are the biggest jokers of the lot, give it large but fall like fairies when returned

Avoid brazil v portugal then.

There have been complaints about Lippi's selection for quite a while now, he seemed to have acknowledged the need to pick players on form rather than reputation, at least a little, in his final squad. Whether you like or not this will be seen as vindication for those claims.

Personally, I'm with bennocelt on this one, the only joy I'll take is not having to watch them again this tournament.

[Charlie Darwin]

I didn't see much passion and pride from Italy in this tournament. To some extent they're a limited squad, but the supposed big players like De Rossi and Di Natali just didn't turn up. Quagliarella oscillated wildly between passion and indifference and along with Pirlo was the only one who really came out of today's game with much credit.

[endabob1]

To be fair to Di Natale he only started 1 of the games, i think de Rossi has been one of their few bright lights but Bepe is an awful player, everytime I have watched them they have been improved by the introduction of Camoranesi but he didn't get enough time.
Iaquinta & Gilardino have been poor. I think Lippi gambled on Pirlo being the spark and without him they have been bereft of creative ideas.

[DaveyCakes]

Italy are out, all I can say is YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[TheBoss]

Hearing the talk of the RTE pundits last night just shows that they know nothing at all about Italian football. There is just as much quality in Serie A than EPL and La Liga. Saying it is a poor league, proves that they know nothing at all about it. Lippi, in my opinion should not have picked at least half that squad, I think Lippi did an unfair representation of the true quality of the league and picked players on past performances and some he may have alliances with.

[John83]

Hearing the talk of the RTE pundits last night just shows that they know nothing at all about Italian football. There is just as much quality in Serie A than EPL and La Liga. Saying it is a poor league, proves that they know nothing at all about it.
It's currently weaker than England or Spain. The scandals of the past few years have cost them a lot of players - players now attracted by the money in England. Inter have picked up the pieces and are the only really good team right now. A few years back, Zambrotta, Nesta, Cannavaro and Grosso were as good as anyone. Now they're old players, still pretty decent, but not world class any more. The current crop of Italian defenders, Chiellini excepting, aren't as good as they were and it's told. The RTE pundits are inclined to make sweeping statements about leagues they don't know well, but that comment wasn't completely ignorant.

[bennocelt]

Avoid brazil v portugal then.




The ref in this game (half time at moment) is having a cracker.......................best ref I have seen so far - giving deserved yellow for
diving in box, and for trying to get a fellow pro sent off - brilliant

the game is dirty though

[Schumi]

Inter have picked up the pieces and are the only really good team right now.
Their Champions' League final team had no Italian players either I think.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Italia were pure sh*te in this tournament. End Of.

A shadow of the team in qualifying....

[stojkovic]

Their Champions' League final team had no Italian players either I think.
Correct.
I think Matarazzi came on in injury time.

[TheBoss]

It's currently weaker than England or Spain. The scandals of the past few years have cost them a lot of players - players now attracted by the money in England. Inter have picked up the pieces and are the only really good team right now. A few years back, Zambrotta, Nesta, Cannavaro and Grosso were as good as anyone. Now they're old players, still pretty decent, but not world class any more. The current crop of Italian defenders, Chiellini excepting, aren't as good as they were and it's told. The RTE pundits are inclined to make sweeping statements about leagues they don't know well, but that comment wasn't completely ignorant.

I do not believe that it is weaker, I think the media in England are doing a fine job at disregarding it at all times. They are many high quality young players in Italy at the moment, I am very sure that Italy will be an impressive side come the next championship, they have real talented youngsters that will surprise many. Not only young Italian players but also foreign players, Serie A is quietly improving despite being vilified over the last few years. Just look at the squads of Juventus, Napoli, Palermo, Genoa, Fiorentina and Udinese, it is amazing to think that none of these will be in the champions league for the new season.

[Riddickcule]

I never liked them, they cheat, they corrupt, they are too conservative. Oh and the countries not much better either.

[Stuttgart88]

There were plenty here who had an agenda to say Ireland were lucky in our WC campaign (which we were at times), happy to ignore some pretty blatant things that went against us - including the luck that Italy had. Cyprus twice and Montenegro away counted for at least 4 points that they were blessed to get, probably more.

[barney]

I do not believe that it is weaker, I think the media in England are doing a fine job at disregarding it at all times. They are many high quality young players in Italy at the moment, I am very sure that Italy will be an impressive side come the next championship, they have real talented youngsters that will surprise many. Not only young Italian players but also foreign players, Serie A is quietly improving despite being vilified over the last few years. Just look at the squads of Juventus, Napoli, Palermo, Genoa, Fiorentina and Udinese, it is amazing to think that none of these will be in the champions league for the new season.

Think you just trampled on your own point there...

Oh the big bad English media doing the Italian game down...look at the facts and stop the pseudo intellectualism. There were no Italian players in the Inter team and the best that they could produce finished bottom of a very weak group and behind a bunch of no hopers like New Zealand. At the moment, Italy aren't good enough. So please stop pretending that you know something that the rest of us don't. I for one take no pleasure in Italy's demise but can see that, right now, they simply aren't good enough.

[TheBoss]

Italy are good enough, as I stated before, at least half that squad that Lippi picked should not have been selected, they were far better players that were unfortunately for Italy not chosen, Lippi was the reason for the failure, not the player quality. Even the media at the time of the selection were bamboozled by it.