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.
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