Gianluigi Buffon still managed to pick up a place in UEFA’s Euro 2008 Team of the Tournament eventhough Italy were knocked out during the quarter-finals. Group Rival Edwin Van Der Sar who had a good tournament and Penalty Stopper Iker Casillas were the other two keepers to pick up a best goalkeeper place. I was baffled not to see Giorgio Chiellini and Daniele De Rossi but the most shock was definitely Chiellini. The young Juventus defender had an excellent tournament starting off from replacing Fabio Cannavaro, the Italy captain to protecting Gianluigi Buffon from the Spanish Army in the quarter-final.

No Doubt About Gigi’s Place

It was obvious that Gigi was to be named in the team of the tournament having saved Italy from Romania thanks to the saved penalty and some great saves against France and Romania. In my opinion, the best save of the tournament was Buffon on Benzema in Italy vs France where Italy won 2-0.
UEFA EURO 2008™ Team of the Tournament
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Edwin van der Sar (Netherlands).

Defenders: Bosingwa (Portugal), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Carlos Marchena (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Carles Puyol (Spain), Yuri Zhirkov (Russia).

Midfielders: Hamit Altıntop (Turkey), Luka Modrić (Croatia), Marcos Senna (Spain), Xavi Hernández (Spain), Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Cesc Fàbregas (Spain), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lukas Podolski (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands).

Forwards: Andrei Arshavin (Russia), Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia), Fernando Torres (Spain), David Villa (Spain).

Roberto Donadoni’s exit was affected by Toni’s failure to hit one goal, claimed the Bayern Munich Top Scorer. Toni failed to hit even one goal during the four games Italy played in Euro 2008 and a couple of sitters against France should have surely saved his blushes had he scored them but he failed.

I Could Have Saved Donadoni From Getting The Sack

He told the press: “Maybe a goal could have saved Don, if only I could have scored, I tried in every way.

“But even if I didn’t score, I believe that I gave a hand in several games and I worked well over the last two years.

“Obviously, if I had scored other goals things could have been very different.”

Toni made no contact with Donadoni after Euro Exit

He continued: “I am not a player who stays in contact with coaches, even though I had a great relationship with Donadoni, as I did with Marcello Lippi.

“Lippi had a great World Cup and we won, but there were lots of incidents which could have gone against us and things could have been different.”

Italian Fa President Giancarlo Abete and Roberto Donadoni are expected to part ways in the coming days. Donadoni led Italy to the Quarter-Final phase against Spain where the Azzurri ultimately bowed out on penalties. Reports were already evidently saying that if Italy were to be knocked out against Spain, Don would be fired. Donadoni had Cannavaro, Barzagli, Gattuso and Pirlo all unavailable for the match against Spain and eventhough he had such important players unavailable he still figured out a way to hold off the Spanish threat.  Donadoni is hopeful of staying as Italy coach and guiding them to success at South Africa. He merits credit. Yes he did some bad decisions and in my opinion, after seeing Toni failing to hit the back of the net in the previous group stage matches against Holland, Romania and France, he should have subbed him against Spain and give another player the chance to give Italy the lead. He kept his faith in Toni all along and with the Bayern striker having problems making friends with the ball, Donadoni paid the price for selecting Toni. The chances of Donadoni staying as Italy coach are nearly 0 but surprises can happen as Donadoni seems to be extremely loyal to the Italian FA saying that he would not take any compensation from the FA if he was to be given the sack before his contract expired.

“I said no to President Giancarlo Abete’s proposal on the day that I agreed the new deal,” Donadoni explained.

“Financial matters don’t concern me. If he doesn’t want me to be the Coach any longer I will leave without asking for anything.”

A Welcome Back To World Cup Winner is Probable

Former Juventus coach Marcello Lippi, the man behind the 2006 World Cup for Italy seems much to be returning back as Azzurri Coach. He did not deny any speculation about this and it was expected. Lippi resigned after the World Cup due to amount of pressure made on him especially after the Calciopoli crisis in Italy. No wonder Lippi did not take reign at a club during these two years. So was he counting on Donadoni’s failure? Counting on it or not makes no changes now. Marcello Lippi is expected to take the hot seat after the FA part company with Donadoni.

0-0 for 120 minutes meant the quarter-final between Italy and Spain would be decided on penalties. After seeing Turkey beat Croatia in the first-penalty shoot-out in Euro 2008, things got exciting in Wien. Yet not for Italy. Casillas outshone Buffon in the penalties saving off two penalties of De Rossi and Di Natale to send Italy packing. It was a great match in which Spain obviously dominated for large parts and in fact in the first half possession statistics were terrifying for the Azzurri but the Italians had managed to use their possession extremely well while they closed down any chances for the Spanish.

Two penalty appeals turned down by Fandel for Spain and a super excellent performance by Giorgio Chiellini meant Italy would not concede in regular time. Buffon thanked the post later in the match having had a shot partially saved then latching onto the post and then on the second time he catches the ball.

Heart-Broken Italy Did Not Deserve Such Embarassing Elimination

It was undeserved for Italy after having started the tournament negatively with Cannavaro’s injury then obtaining qualification from Group Stage the way they did it and losing Pirlo and Gattusso to suspension putting Donadoni in some tactics scramble. Don’t get me wrong Spain deserved to go through but the Italians were just unlucky having to bow out in this way from Euro 2008.

Donadoni played his last card too late when he put forward Alex in the second half of extra time. He needed to put him on earlier in the match to see more from him. He could have been the turning point of the match had he was subbed earlier.

Il Bomber Left His Cannon at Home

Another disappointing match for Luca Toni who failed to break the duck in Euro 2008 and this was definitely the key to Italy only netting three goals in four matches. Amauri has declared that he would be ready to play for Italy if he is called up by the coach whoever he is and with the World Cup in two years time Italy really need to get rid of Toni or else wait until he decides to score.

Fabregas did not even give Del Piero a chance to take his penalty

Di Natale went on to be booed and jeered all the way through the last moments and before he kicked his penalty I had a bad feeling about him. Everytime he touched the ball Spanish fans were all over him after they thought he had simulated an injury. Casillas was on fire and Di Natale’s kick could not be scored the way he executed it. Fabregas then went on to send Buffon the wrong way to give Spain a place in the Semi-Final against Russia to get ready for a possible final against Germany or Turkey.

Grosso, Del Piero, De Rossi will definitely take a penalty together with Toni and Zambrotta are the first five takers for Italy presumably

Tension is high! One of these teams will go home and they will know in just 10 minutes more…

Can Buffon be Italy’s Hero tonight once again?

First Penalty: Villa will take the first penalty. No Mistake. Villa puts Spain 1-0 ahead

The World-Cup winning penalty taker is first to take here..and he makes no mistake of it!! FABIO GROSSO!!! 1-1

Second Penalty: Cazorla against Buffon. Buffon goes the wrong way and Spain retake the lead. 2-1

Daniele De Rossi up with the next penalty..Casillas puts De Rossi off! 2-1 it stays

Third Penalty: Senna’s turn is up….oh god please miss! Espana are on the way forward unfortunately…3-1

CAMO CAMO CAMO!!!! 3-2…

Fourth Penalty: Buffon must get this one! or guiza must miss!!! GRANDE GIGI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3-2

Di Natale must score to get Italy back!!!!! casillas saves 3-2

Fifth Penalty: Fabregas with the possible winner now….:( will he put Italy out?  4-2…Di Natale should have netted his!!!Italy are out of Euro 2008

Spain and Italy are entertaining the crowd in a 0-0 half-time draw. Spain have been the dominant side in this first half having had a penalty appeal for a foul on Silva turned down by referee Fandel. A foul by Grosso just out of the penalty area was again not given by referee Herbet Fandel while the Spanish fans showed their emotions towards the referee. Buffon had only one particular save to do from a free-kick which he coped perfectly well with.

Italy’s Antonio Cassano has been extremely threatening on the left side of Italy’s attack yet when Spain have possession Cassano seems to be taking it slightly easy instead of pressuring his closest opponent. Toni had a great chance foiled by the Spanish defender. Silva has been dangerous for Spain having had a couple of dangerous chances whilst Torres and Villa are showing their dangerous abilities on the counter.

We now await the second half and with Fandel doing some bad decisions for Spain we hope that the ref will have a good second half.. (Well cannot actually complain about the ref from Italy’s view point but what’s wrong is wrong just like the decisions that affected us in other matches).

ITALY TEAM:

1-Gianluigi Buffon; 19-Gianluca Zambrotta, 2-Christian Panucci, 4-Giorgio Chiellini, 3-Fabio Grosso; 22-Alberto Aquilani, 10-Daniele De Rossi, 13-Massimo Ambrosini; 20-Simone Perrotta; 18-Antonio Cassano, 9-Luca Toni

-SPAIN TEAM:

1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 5-Carles Puyol, 4-Carlos Marchena, 11-Joan Capdevila; 19-Marcos Senna; 6-Andres Iniesta, 8-Xavi, 21-David Silva; 7-David Villa, 9-Fernando Torres

Having a capacity of 50,000, Ernst Happel Stadium, Wien has already hosted Austria vs Croatia, Austria vs Poland and Austria vs Germany together with the second quarter-final which turned out to be a hell of  a match between Croatia and Turkey. Will Wien see out some good action tonight?

The Wien Fanzone turned out to be a hit with the Austrians