France put me to sleep. I'd like to tell you more about this game- other than Spain looked in championship form- but, I fell asleep halfway through the second half. I think the same thing happened to Malouda, who was in criminal dereliction of duty in being a pedestrian bystander to Xavi Alonso's run into the box for the opener.
It does bother me that Spain do not get much output from all that pretty play.
ITA over ENG - This one will likely prove more fun to talk about than it will be to watch.
England do have a shot here against another side that don't always seek the output. But, while you have to admire that this side, which would have trouble cracking the top four in its own league, is doing, I've not seen top-level footall out of them. Gerrard is playing meh, as are most of them, for that matter.
As we've often seen from him at manchester united, when Rooney isn't getting the ball the way he likes, he will drift back far enough so that he does, even to the point of playing defense. While that's good on him, that's not necessarily to the greater good of the side. Further, unlike united, there isn't quite the vested interest in keeping England in the tournament, so they are not likely to get calls (even if they had Howard Webb out there).
The strategy will surely be to score as the Croatians did against Italy- and, as England have scored at least once in each match, with a Gerrard cross finding a head- with Chiellini showing that he's not quite as good when he can't clutch and grab. In fact, Chiellini won't be around at all for this one. Yes, the Italians don't have the rock solid defense to the standards of past editions, but they have Pirlo playing at Forlán-level self-assuredness. He will surely create something that will result in output. Putting enough pressure on Italy to force Pirlo to help out on tracking and defense will limit exhibition of his genius, but England don't really have the speed to open up Italy.
This one smells like 1-1 penalties.
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