Italy should have lost. Italy fielded the lamest midfield I've seen so far this tournament and most of the time in the first half Del Piero and Montella were ABSOLUTELY isolated in front.
Di Biagio and Ambrosini ? Horrible.
Pessotto and Di Livio ? Laughable.
Maldini, Ferrara and ***** ? Had obvious problems coping with Larsson, Osmanovski and Ljungbergs running behind the wing backs.
Toldo ? Marvellous at the right times, but seemed insecure at several crosses.
Iuliano ? Didn't do squat for offense but he was strong in defence.
Montella, Del Piero ? To be honest I was disappointed that they didn't work harder, but they always looked dangerous when they received the ball to theri feet instead of those lame punts from the defence.
Things looked a little better when Nesta replaced an injured Maldini, because he made the defence look better.
Del Piero curled in a corner and Di Biagio made his only good action in the game when he put a strong header in the back of the net 7 minutes from half time.
In the second Sweden fought well and andersson created a lot of problems for Italy's defence even if Cannavaro had also come on.
Fiore FINALLY replaced Di livio and Italy looked like a team again, as there was now a midfielder who wanted to support the attack.
Di Biagio gifted the Swede's a deserved equalizer as he made an XXXXX mistake allowing Kenneth andersson to give Henka Larsson a run at goal which he calmly took advantage of.
Del Piero killed the game in the 88th with a great goal. He took advantage of a poor defensive clearance, faked one of the defenders and put a hard left footed shot in the top of the net behind Hedman.
Italy ratings:
Toldo: 7
Ferrara: 5,5
Iuliano: 6,5
Nesta: 7
Cannavaro:6,5
Maldini: 6
*****: 5,5
Pessotto: 5
Di Livio: 5,5
Ambrosini: 5
Di Biagio: 5
Fiore: 6,5
Montella: 6,5
Del Piero: 7
Di Biagio and Ambrosini ? Horrible.
Pessotto and Di Livio ? Laughable.
Maldini, Ferrara and ***** ? Had obvious problems coping with Larsson, Osmanovski and Ljungbergs running behind the wing backs.
Toldo ? Marvellous at the right times, but seemed insecure at several crosses.
Iuliano ? Didn't do squat for offense but he was strong in defence.
Montella, Del Piero ? To be honest I was disappointed that they didn't work harder, but they always looked dangerous when they received the ball to theri feet instead of those lame punts from the defence.
Things looked a little better when Nesta replaced an injured Maldini, because he made the defence look better.
Del Piero curled in a corner and Di Biagio made his only good action in the game when he put a strong header in the back of the net 7 minutes from half time.
In the second Sweden fought well and andersson created a lot of problems for Italy's defence even if Cannavaro had also come on.
Fiore FINALLY replaced Di livio and Italy looked like a team again, as there was now a midfielder who wanted to support the attack.
Di Biagio gifted the Swede's a deserved equalizer as he made an XXXXX mistake allowing Kenneth andersson to give Henka Larsson a run at goal which he calmly took advantage of.
Del Piero killed the game in the 88th with a great goal. He took advantage of a poor defensive clearance, faked one of the defenders and put a hard left footed shot in the top of the net behind Hedman.
Italy ratings:
Toldo: 7
Ferrara: 5,5
Iuliano: 6,5
Nesta: 7
Cannavaro:6,5
Maldini: 6
*****: 5,5
Pessotto: 5
Di Livio: 5,5
Ambrosini: 5
Di Biagio: 5
Fiore: 6,5
Montella: 6,5
Del Piero: 7