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| Wednesday 18 June, 2008 |
| Blog: Wheel of Fortune |
| Having previously seen Lady Luck laugh in Italy's face, Richard Godden believes that fortune favoured the Azzurri in their Group C decider against France |
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Before a ball had been kicked last night, Italy boss Roberto Donadoni highlighted Franck Ribery as France's biggest threat. “Franck is a great player,” revealed the Azzurri tactician. “He is able to decide any game as he is so good when the team are going forward. The key is to play offensive wingers against him.”
Donadoni didn't follow his own advice, as he went for a narrow midfield and left out the only true wide-man in his squad, Mauro Camoranesi. We'll never know if the Don got his tactics spot on though, as Ribery limped off just seven minutes into the game with what looked like a pretty bad injury to his knee. That knock, sustained in an accidental collision with Gianluca Zambrotta, sparked a chain of events which showed that Lady Luck was smiling on Italy.
The Azzurri had actually already received some good news prior to kick-off when it was revealed that left-back Eric Abidal would be starting in the centre of the France defence at the expense of Lilian Thuram, with reports suggesting that the former Parma defender was not in the right frame of mind to play. I don't think I need to remind any of you which player brought down Luca Toni in the 25th minute to hand Italy a spot-kick, while also reducing Les Bleus to 10 men. Andrea Pirlo then gave the perfect lesson in penalty taking to put Italy 1-0 up.
After Toni then proceeded to miss a hatful of chances for the second straight game, France came back into things as Donadoni's men took their foot off the gas. Once again, however, fate conspired against Raymond Domenech and Co. On the hour mark, Daniele De Rossi stepped up to take a free-kick in the absence of the substituted Pirlo. We'll never know quite where the ball would have ended up without Thierry Henry's intervention, as the ex-Juventus flop inadvertently turned it past a stranded Gregory Coupet.
These events would have all been rendered meaningless if Romania had beaten a Holland side who have had their minds on the quarter-finals since booking their last-eight spot on Friday, following a 4-1 victory over France. All the pessimists pointed to the Oranje laying down for Adrian Mutu's side, but Marco Van Basten's second string put in the kind of display you'd expect from players hoping to impress their Coach to break into the first team - even if Romania had some great chances of their own in the opening period.
Despite all of this, the Azzurri certainly deserved to go through. As I said just over a week ago, they weren't as bad as some of the so-called experts were making out after the thumping defeat to Holland, while they created enough chances in the Romania match to win two or three games. It is said that you make your own luck - and that was certainly the case last night. Now all Donadoni needs to do is keep that horseshoe in a safe place until June 29. Or he could always ask his old pal Domenech what's written in the stars…
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So Italy eventually received some luck in the tournament….did they ???? France's best player accidentally gets injured, their centre half decides to assault Luca Toni in the box, gives away a penalty and correctly gets sent off - Italy create a hatful of chances and eventually get a second goal to finish the game - meanwhile Holland, currently the best squad in the tournament, dispatch an overly defensive Romania side 2 - 0.
Now can I ask where is this luck you're talking about?? Should Italians be grateful that a referee has got a decision right? Or that we have dominated a match and won? That doesn't sound like luck, that sounds like justice..luck is when you get something good that you don't deserve.
Italy have yet to experience a true lucky break…but I have a feeling one's just around the corner.
Bruno Iuliano
I am sorry Bruno I would have to disagree with you. Lady luck was with the Azzurri when Mutu missed the penalty. It was a great save by Buffon but you do need an element of luck with any penalty. France to lose Ribery was also fortunate for Italy but taking everything into account then I feel the balance of luck is about even i.e Van Nistelrooy offside Goal and Luca Toni Goal disallowed. I must admit that I did not give Italy must chance last night, I was confident Italy would win but I was certain Romania would eliminate us so a big thank you to Holland because we was LUCKY that they beat Romania.
Davide Longo
I think if lady luck was really smiling on Italy Luca Toni would made a proper connection with each of the 10 or so chances his messed up and it would've been a record defeat! There was nothing lucky about last night, Italy were the better team throughout the game. Lady luck is hopefully waiting for the Azzurri in the next round!
Garry Passarella |
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