Before kick off, the general opinion seemed that Italy were going to walk this game, with the Netherlands missing key players due to injury, such as Mario Melchiot, Ryan Babel and Arjen Robben, with Robin Van Persie just passing a very late fitness test.
In the first couple of minutes, both teams seemed very eager to make a good start, especially after France’s shock draw against Romania. After around five minutes Holland started to dominate the game, putting Italy’s’ defense under immense pressure, and it was obvious Italy were missing their usual captain, Fabio Cannovaro.
After twenty minutes, Italy conceded a corner. As the ball flew in, Buffon reached out and punched the ball, landing at Sneijder’s feet. He then whacked the ball and Ruud Van Nistelrooy converted it into the bottom corner. Van Nistelrooy was quite far offside, and Italian players were understandably appalled, Luca Toni getting booked for his arguments.
Italy soon found their feet though, forcing the Dutch back into their own half where they conceded a silly corner. The ball came across and Van Bronckhorst blocked off the line, before running the whole length of the field before making a perfect cross, straight to Dirk Kuyt who headed back into the six yard box for Wesley Sneijder to volley past Buffon.
Just minutes later, Dirk Kuyt played a perfect through ball to Van Nistelrooy, who took it round the Italian goalie but appeared to be caught. Van Nistelrooy stayed up (just about) and crosses the ball back into the middle to no avail, but if he had gone down it would have undoubtedly been a penalty. The Netherlands go into the changing rooms well on top, and Italy didn’t look like coming back from two goals down.
The second half wasn’t any less exciting. Italy started well, but once again Holland started to take control, passing the ball around and playing some extremely good football. There was almost nothing to choose between the two teams, until Pirlo took a curling free kick from the edge of the area which Edwin Van Der Sar superbly saved, before throwing it up the field, for new substitute Robin Van Persie to thread the ball through to Dirk Kuyt who shot from the edge of the box with Buffon making a fantastic save. The Liverpool striker then crossed the ball back in and Van Bronckhorst had an easy header to make it three nil.
After that there really was no way back for Italy, although they had a couple of opportunities that would have gone their way on another day, they failed to score.
It was definitely the most entertaining match of Euro 2008 so far, with fluent football from both sides and some amazing team goals, but it is the Netherlands that came out on top, and, judging by this performance, they certainly have the ability to win the competition.
This is the day every soccer fan is waiting for, the day when teams in the “Group of Death” compete. Group C had all the world excited, it includes Romania, France, Holland and the world champions Italy. It is truly the “Group of Death”, and the highlighted match today is Holland vs Italy, ofcourse Italy are declared the favorites by all analysts, but I think they were remembering Italy 2006 when they came up with that assumption.
Italy 2006 is different than Italy 2008, manager, players, tactics, its not the same Italy. What adds more pressure on Italy is that Cannavaro is injured and wont play, he is ofcourse the rock they need in the backline, also Panucci might not play.
What adds pressure on Italy also is the goal they have set before the start of the competition, they want to go for the double, like France who won World Cup 1996 and Euro 2000. And they deserve to dream, but I really doubt they will be able to achieve this.
But on the other hand things are not going so well in the Holland camp too, Robben picked up a groin problem Saturday, he will be replaced most probably by the young PSV player Ibrahim Afellay. Lets not forget that also Seedorf wont be playing after he was pulled out of the squad for personal problems. Ryan Babel also got injured and been replaced by Khalid Boulahrouz. Van Persie is not fully fit and also might miss the match, but most probably will be featuring next matches.
The players I will be watching are the Holland’s Goalkeeper Van Der Sar, he is an extraordinary Goalkeeper and he always surprises me. He will need to step up and be ready as his defense is having problems. In Italy I will be watching Luca Toni, he did score 39 goals for his club Bayern Munich this season and everytime I underestimate him he scores, Italy will need him to be in form to be able to bypass Holland tonight.
So both sides have problems, but it sure looks like it will be a win for Italy, it will be a huge shock if Holland win, but I think it will be a great achievement by them if they were able to get a draw. If things go as usual Italy should be able to pull a 2-1 win, but because this match has both sides weak in defense line, I expect something like 4-2.
After seasons and seasons of exclusively airing the UEFA Champions League, ART now loses those rights to Aljazeera Sport Channel. Aljazeera won those rights and for the UEFA cup for at least the next three seasons from 2009 to 2012. Aljazeera also got the rights to broadcast the UEFA Super Cups for 2009, 2010 and 2011.
What is really interesting also is that Aljazeera also got the rights to exploit those competitions on the Internet and Mobiles. It is said that Aljazeera will be selling some of he matches to free-to-air channels, those matches are expected to be in the UEFA Cup and not the UEFA Champions League.
At start there has been a few doubts on how Aljazeera Sports Channel will be able to manage to air big number of matches that play at the same time, as we know Aljazeera has now only two free-to-air channels and two “pay TV” channels, with an additional one to start soon, so to clear those doubts Aljazeera announced that they will be adding new channels that works only on matches times.
In my opinion Aljazeera Sports is better than ART, they respect the championships they have rights to, they create appropriate analysis studios they employ capable analysts and presenters. Simply speaking they are well organized, and willing to go all the way to produce high quality coverage.
In regard to ART Sports future it seems they are doomed, although some rumors say that they will be having the Italian League in FULL starting from next season, if there is any true to this it could save them but I really wish they don’t get it in full, Aljazeera is better capable to give this league the kind of attention it deserves. I really wish this Mary go around thing with the leagues ends, I wish one capable network takes all of them so we can just subscribe to one network.
Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
This is what he had to say today: “Although it would have been a very attractive challenge to play for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga once again, I have decided against taking this step due to personal reasons, I am sorry, particularly to disappoint the people responsible at Borussia Dortmund, who have tried very professionally to convince me to move and gave me sufficient time for consideration.”
Ofcourse the Germany coach Joachim Low and team manager Oliver Bierhoff backed Lehmann’s choice. Even Wenger stated today that he is happy Lehmann is staying and that he will be included in the next match against Birmingham. He said: “Lehmann will be on the bench, the indication I can give is that I am happy if he stays because he is an important player in the squad, like Gilberto also. We have such a young squad that these players have a big weight in the dressing room and a big input in the team. I am happy if they stay.”
Although am happy he is staying, but I find his decision a bit odd, he knows Almunia is number one now and it would take more than a couple of bad performances by Almunia to make Lehmann first choice again, what is he depending on, that Almunia is injured?? On the second hand, his national team manager already informed him only players who play regularly with their clubs will be considered to represent Germany in Euro 2008!
The depressed overweight has got what he wished for, he is staying in his country at least until the end of the current season. He will be playing for São Paulo in the Copa Libertadores and São Paulo State Cup.
When his agent was asked on how Adriano reacted towards this deal he said “Adriano was over the moon when I told him and he thanked me for arranging it all”.
Inter Milan have said that they are happy with Adriano’s recuperation, the player will return to Inter Milan in the 2008-2009 season.
I expect Adriano will find another deal by next season with another European club, and I expect it to be either Arsenal or Manchester City or AC Milan.
Real Madrid rumors keeps puring in, the Spanish sports daily Marca is insisting that Diarra is on his way out of Real Madrid maybe as soon as the winter. The rumor says that Schuster, altho using the player in different amount of times and positions, still does not want him in the squad and informed the board with his decision and the board have approved it.
The reason why it could be in winter rather in the summer, simply because Diarra will be playing in the African Cup in the winter which means not being available to play for Real Madrid for about 5 weeks, which makes the player even less valuable to them.
In the end, my opinion is that Schuster will miss the player if he does not have a replacement in winter, Diarra have played a good role especially when Schuster had dual defensive midfield plan. I know that Gago is there and Gago is heavily competing in that position but still Diarra will be missed.
They splashed him with cash and gave him full control, but he simply wasn’t able to reach to the level they were expecting. Do you blame them ?!
They are 18th on the EPL table, they just lost 1-2 to Getafe in the UEFA CUP, everybody expected this, we only didn’t know when.
By the way the decision to sack him was taken before getafe’s match but they waited until after the match, anyway they are hoping to get Juande Ramos Sevilla’s manager and the ex-spurs midfielder Gus Poyet as Assistant Manager who is currently Leeds Assistant Manager. But they might have to wait til the end of the season, for Sunday’s game they are giving the task to their Reserves Coach Clive Allen.
Before kick off, the general opinion seemed that Italy were going to walk this game, with the Netherlands missing key players due to injury, such as Mario Melchiot, Ryan Babel and Arjen Robben, with Robin Van Persie just passing a very late fitness test.
This is the day every soccer fan is waiting for, the day when teams in the “Group of Death” compete. Group C had all the world excited, it includes Romania, France, Holland and the world champions Italy. It is truly the “Group of Death”, and the highlighted match today is Holland vs Italy, ofcourse Italy are declared the favorites by all analysts, but I think they were remembering Italy 2006 when they came up with that assumption.
The players I will be watching are the Holland’s Goalkeeper Van Der Sar, he is an extraordinary Goalkeeper and he always surprises me. He will need to step up and be ready as his defense is having problems. In Italy I will be watching Luca Toni, he did score 39 goals for his club Bayern Munich this season and everytime I underestimate him he scores, Italy will need him to be in form to be able to bypass Holland tonight.
Borussia Dortmund announced today that the deal to sign Jens Lehmann this winter collapsed after the player decided he rather stay with Arsenal. Lehmann’s contract with Arsenal expires in the summer, and Wenger have said earlier that he wont stand in the goalkeeper’s way to return to Germany, but it seems Lehmann believe he can regain his position and the trust of Arsene Wenger.
The depressed overweight has got what he wished for, he is staying in his country at least until the end of the current season. He will be playing for São Paulo in the Copa Libertadores and São Paulo State Cup.
Real Madrid rumors keeps puring in, the Spanish sports daily Marca is insisting that Diarra is on his way out of Real Madrid maybe as soon as the winter. The rumor says that Schuster, altho using the player in different amount of times and positions, still does not want him in the squad and informed the board with his decision and the board have approved it.
They splashed him with cash and gave him full control, but he simply wasn’t able to reach to the level they were expecting. Do you blame them ?!