Preview - Italy vs Netherlands, June 9 2008

Here i begin...

“Fabio Cannavaro will say goodbye to our European adventure, before it has even begun..” comes out a statement.

And you’re like whoa, what the hell… The World Cup triumph had got the Azzurri a good number of fans from India, who do not have an English team to root for , come Euro. And this should go as a shock to all those Italian fans who have been dreaming of a second cup in two tournaments. It is almost an unwritten fact that Italy won the World cup on the fantastic defence marshaled by Fabio. And yeah, of course, the Zizou stunt. But it is too plain.. No Cannavaro, No Roman wall...

The real test for the Azzurri begins from Day 1 of their European adventure, with the Dutch hungry to prove a point. Italy without Fabio, and I see a man with a broken leg, bleeding to add to it, surrounded by 11 hungry wolves. The Netherlands, on the other hand, is one of the strongest teams on paper and yeah, they ain’t on full strength either. They’ll be without the Liverpool star Ryan Babel. But Marco van Basten has other recipes up his sleeve.. so many options that Huntelaar was not even subbed in the friendly against Wales.

The heavily anticipated Italian defence will now look like a few big boulders rather than the Wall that they are famous for. And they can consider themselves lucky if the likes of Nistelrooy, Robben, Kuyt and Huntelaar fail to deal with the boulders. Not to mention the much touted return of R.V.P for the opener.

I was for one behind the Azzurri even before the World Cup started, and it was on their defence that I banked, and it was precisely that defence that saw them through. They can only hope that Gattuso , Pirlo & Luca Toni make up for it this time though, or they may end up eliminated!

This match will be the most important match of the tournament as the winner of this tie will be tagged as the favorites immediately.

Key Players:

Italy: Gattuso, Buffon, Luca Toni

Netherlands: RVP, Nistelrooy, Sneijder

I’ll be back to post on the results! Man, I don’t have a prediction for this game.. Absolutely unpredictable. Though instincts tell me that the Dutch will score, a 0-0 draw seems to be the most practical outcome from 90 minutes of play.