What a game…
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It could have been a great game. No, scratch that. It SHOULD have been a great game ! The current world champions against their runner-up.
Italy against France.
On the field, some of the greatest players of all time…
But in the end, the game was one of the worst of the tournament.
If Italy deserved the victory they got, based on the games they played, they did not deserve to advance to the quarterfinals all that much.
On the other hand, France lost everything and it is totally coherent if you look at the game they played during their week in Switzerland.
How much fans regret the Italian and French teams from 1998-2000. They faced each other in France for the 1998 World Cup and in the Netherlands during the 2000 European championship. And both games were far better than what we got to watch this time.
Ten years ago, France eliminated the Azzuri in the quarterfinals after a penaty shoot-out. During the game, no one scored but the players dribbled, passed and created the game much better than this year’s teams.
Eight years ago, France won thanks to a golden goal by David Trezeguet. And even though the match in itself was not outstanding, it is still, to this date, one of the greatest comeback in the history of soccer !
After Franck Ribéry’s injury, les Bleus struggled to get back in the game. When they finally did, Eric Abidal was sent off for fouling Luca Toni…
After 25 minutes, France could not rely on Franck Ribéry anymore, they were one player short and down one goal. Raymond Domenech then decided to put Jean-Alain Boumsong on the field and Samir Nasri (who replaced Dfranck Ribéry when he got injured) off, which was clearly not the right thing to do if the goal is to win the game…
The rest of the game is barely worth the talk. Of course Italians (mostly Luca Toni) had a few occasions. But when you look at it closely, it was always the same thing : pass above the French defense to Toni, who then was never able to score. When you take into account the fact that they had one more player, it is not how it should have been…
French did not create much more but at least they the “excuse” of being 10 instead of 11…
Before the end of the match, Italy scored a second goal, which came on a free-kick by De Rossi, deflected by Thierry Henry into his own goal.
Final score : 2-0. Italy could celebrate their first victory over France in thirty years without the need for a penalty shoot-out.
They could also celebrate their qualification for the quarterfinals since the Netherlands beat Romania on the same score (2-0).
And they did celebrate. Italian fans, Italian players and staff.
On the other hand, fans of the great game that is soccer were just stricken and pained after seeing two great soccer nations play such a game….
By Roxanne Roche
