This past week saw the final games of Euro qualification and Italy booked their spot to Ukraine-Poland with more points than they ever have before. Prandelli's men finished the competition with eight wins two draws and no losses while hitting the back of the net twenty times and only giving up two* goals (numbers are eschewed because of the "3-0 win" against Serbia). Now I'm not going to make any serious predictions about the Euro cup, because it is still far away and the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany all had more impressive qualifiers, but obviously everyone in Italy has good reason to be optimistic. Much praise is being thrown out to Antonio Cassano, and rightfully so. He has been the soul of the Azzurri attack and has brought forth an energy and desire to score that many Italian strikers have lacked. Too many times have Azzurri faithful gotten excited about strikers who have scored several dozen times for their clubs, only to see them struggle to find the back of the net for their country, or when they do score its absolute crap that anyone could hit (i.e. Gilardino, Di Natale, Toni, etc...). Cassano may not be exactly what we dreamed in a striker but there is no doubting that he has shown his ability with the national side even if his club performance doesn't always match that. All that matters now is who will pair with him, and the options are numerous. Besides the striking aspect, there are many other reasons to be excited for this team. As a Juventus fan, one can only be extremely thrilled of the renewed connection between club success and national success. ItalJuve appears to be back with both teams finding stride. The Marchisio - Pirlo combination (which I will now refer to as Pirlisio) looks to be just as effective on the international stage as it has on the club level. Pirlisio are locking down the midfield, creating and finishing many chances. Those two need to be playing together all the time and Prandelli would be wise to use them as much as possible. Things look good right now for Italy but they're not quite on the level of Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. It is definitely an exciting time for the Azzurri fans but everyone needs to remain grounded because the road ahead is a tough one.
In other Euro news, there are some mouth-watering playoff matches to be had that will likely see some unexpected teams make their way into Euro2012. One of the biggest surprises was Denmark topping group H forcing Portugal into the playoff and eliminating the previously high ranked Norway (who had no right being a top ranked team for World Cup qualifying, and now sit on top of a WC group that will have no teams in the Euro cup). Portugal get drawn against Bosnia-Herzegovina. I think we could see Bosnia end up in the Euro, mainly because I like their determination, they would have won their group if not for a very stupid foul, and Edin Dzeko keeps on finding new ways to score goals. Trapattoni has to be happy with the draw as Ireland will face Estonia. After the injustice of their World Cup qualifying, I find it hard to believe Ireland will miss out of a major tournament again, especially against Estonia who were fortunate to move onto this stage. For the other two games I am pulling for Turkey and Montenegro. I've always enjoyed watching the Turkish, not to mention I really enjoyed visiting Istanbul. I also like seeing Juventus players performing well for their countries so I'm hoping Vucinic will come through for Montenegro. I think we're in for some great matches and hopefully some unexpected results (mainly just a Ronaldoless Euro cup).
No comments:
Post a Comment