Euro 2008: France 0-2 Italy Qualify to the Quarter Finals (Full Match Report and Video)
The two 2006 World Cup finalists were fighting for Euro 2008 survival in this game, after both teams had lost to the Netherlands and drawn against Romania this game was anyone’s to win. Neither team went in favorite, so this game really was very open.
France started extremely badly, their midfield star Ribery getting a nasty injury which caused the French to make an early substitution. Not a good sign.
To make matters worse, Italy were playing tremendous attacking football, and Luca Toni was looking very threatening. There were several good opportunities for Italy, but it was only on the twenty fifth minute when Luca Toni was brought down from behind by Eric Abidal, and Italy had a penalty. Too add insult to injury for France, Abidal was also sent off. Pirlo kept his cool to convert for the Italians: an excellent penalty in to the top corner.
The Italians looked increasingly likely to score, and were appalled when the referee failed to stop play for an injured Italian player, and Pirlo received a yellow card for fouling to let the injured player receive treatment, and then the referee stopped the game for an injured French player!
In the second half the Italians still looked more likely to win, piling pressure on the French defense who started to look very tired, especially considering they were one man down. It was no real surprise when on the sixty second minute, a thirty yard free kick resulted in a cruel deflection off Thierry Henry which went passed his own goal keeper to make the French two goals down.
The Italians maybe should have got another goal or two, with Luca Toni looking very strong, but France held on to keep the score line low.
Overall a good game from Italy’s point of view, and they are through to the quarter finals, but the French will be upset at going out of the competition this early.
Final Score:
France 0 – 2 Italy
Watch both GOALS:
Sphere: Related ContentComments June 18th, 2008
This was the first game in this years ‘group of death, which includes France, Romania, Italy and Holland. Before this game, several French players agreed that to succeed in this group you would have to do well in your first game, and compared to the other two teams, Romania sounds relatively easy, but in actual fact they have only lost three games in their last twenty matches (over a two year period)
