2-3

That ref

wtf referee was going to give a penalty or something?

I'm loving DS' defensive work. see that sliding tackle?

Yeah, he's been great today

TODAY???

Well he did have a bit of a nightmare against Japan if we're being honest. But all in all it's been a pretty good tournament for him. Considering this is his first big tournament with his senior national team

oh wops, didn't watch that match(was a bit late for me here).

2-4

The defending is just shocking. It has been al tournament tbh. Something Italy pride themselves on has been an utter joke these last 3 matches

Buffon has been poor today.

Their 1st and 4th looked offside though. the 1st one WAS offside.

Yeah that's what I thought but strangely no one has said anything about it...

The offsides or Buffon?

Anyway, Brazil's 1st and 4th definitely offside.

BBC are ripping into him like he's some random muppet.

We're just mad because we have Joe Hart

The offside on the 1st goal, but the commentator and the guys doing the analysis didn't even mention it when it was pretty obvious.

But yeah, I agree about Buffon and the 4th goal as well.

Anyway, Italy will get a good whipping from Spain and head home. Too bad Abate seems to have dislocated his shoulder on top of everything else.

I seriously don't get what Prandelli's thought processes are here though. He had such a clear vision in the Euro's, yes he messed about with formations a bit, but once he found the right formula he stuck with it. I don't understand why he wouldn't go with that now considering that the only wide players he has are absolutely cr@ppy ones.

Candreva and Cerci are just average mid-table side players, they are simply not good enough to be in this side, and I seriously hope that he does not pick them ahead of the far more talented, younger choices he has.

Bonucci, Barzagli, Aquilani, Giaccherini. All of these guys have no business starting games either. Aquilani is SOOO clumsy when tackling it's not even funny. It's always been one of his biggest issues along with the choking. Bonucci and Barzagli have shown themselves to be the knuckle heads we all knew they were and Giaccherrini although full of fighting spirit and heart is simply not a good player.

Ogbonna, Insigne, Destro and Veratti better be in that WC team and the team for the qualifiers instead of the likes of Aqui, Bonucci, Giaccherini, Candreva, Gila, etc.

And seriously, he needs to call in a substitute for DDR, not having a good DM backup really cost Italy today

Well, Joe Hart played much better against Brazil.


Maggio did a good job replacing him tbh, and that header... shame it didn't go in.

I'm not sure Abate has dislocated his shoulder. sure he was in so much pain, but there was no knock to his right arm and he didn't fall badly on his arm either. it was that flyweight Neymar who collided with him, Abate deals with much tougher/bigger opposition all the time. strange what happened to him to say the least.

And don't gold your breath to see major changes in the WC next year. especially the CBs which should naturally come from Juve

About his only good game all year.

I think he sees it more as an opportunity to test players who may not be First XI without fear of damaging chances of qualification. Better now than in WCQ in my opinion.

Yeah, not saying that Maggio wasn't good, I'm mostly berating the fact that Abate got injured at all.

I don't know if it was a dislocation, and it really has nothing to do with who he collided with, the fall is what injured him.


Well if that's the case it just doesn't make that much sense. Candreva, Cerci, Diamanti, Giaccherini, etc may be half decent players, and some of them even had a good season for their respective clubs, but we all knew that they were never really good enough for the world stage. Testing them was always going to be pointless. It would have been better to pick your best line-ups and continue with that to provide continuity for the team.

Prandelli has really disappointed me during this tournament, he seems to be making spur of the moment decisions without any thought behind them. For example, why not play Barzagli? I've never really been an admirer but he's still a better player than Bonucci.

Why start both Monto and Aquilani and then waste a sub to take one off 20 minutes in? (and it was the wrong one as well). He did the same thing against Japan. Why persist with this strange formation when you don't really have any good wide players. Both Candreva and Cerci wouldn't know how to dribble past a traffic cone FFS.

And personally I still don't think that this is the case. They do see it as important. The confed cup is important because it's not easy to get in it in the first place and to win it would be a good achievement and a good stepping stone before the WC. Italy will go through their qualifiers either way, he can test a different 11 ever game that's still left to play and they will still win that group

Agreed, it is these tournaments that you need to test different solutions before major qualifications/WC/EC etc .. Especially with strong opposition, where a coach understands the quality he has better.

If Italy play 3-5-2 the next game, I honestly think Maggio was going to the better choice anyway.

Yeah, in a 3-man defensive system he's the better choice, but playing a back 4 you'd have a problem with him as we saw in the Euros, he did ok yesterday there but he tends to get caught out too much when playing as a proper FB instead of when playing at WB.

Wow, Spain are incredible...

Nigeria playing surprisingly well too.

Alba about 1 meter in offside, the linesman just didn't see it so he didn't flag.

The refereeing has been disastrous in this tournament so far.

If that doesn't mean SES will start instead of freakin' Giaccherini, I don't know what does. too bad that even if he does start, it'll probably be as a winger not a CF.

Don't think it means El Sha is going to start. He will probably play with Gila and Giovinco in 5-3-2.

Italy's first priority should obviously be not conceding. Prandelli would be an idiot to put a lamp post in Gilardino out there when Italy need all their 10 men to run and defend and do pressing. we all remember how SES used to track back to defend and how he saved us from conceding several times better than our own CBs, we'll see if Prandelli has watched those games at all.

He want's a prima punta and SES isn't exactly tested in this department. Also, problem is, the form and current shape SES seems to be. Giaccherini with all his negatives still managed to score - which I doubt SES would do.

Italy tested out a three-man defence to face Spain with Claudio Marchisio and Antonio Candreva behind centre-forward Alberto Gilardino.

The Azzurri are forced into a tactical shift after losing Mario Balotelli and Ignazio Abate for the rest of the Confederations Cup.

On Thursday they take on Spain in the semi-final and Cesare Prandelli held his first training session behind closed doors.

La Gazzetta dello Sport sources managed to sneak a view of the proceedings in Fortaleza and reported back use of a 3-4-2-1 system.

It’s an all-Juventus back line with Gigi Buffon in goal, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini together.

Emanuele Giaccherini and Christian Maggio are the wing-backs around Daniele De Rossi and Andrea Pirlo, who are back from suspension and a calf injury respectively.

Marchisio and Lazio’s Candreva act as support between the lines for Bologna forward Gilardino.

There will be another training session in a few hours, which will be open to photographers and media for only 15 minutes.

Many hypothesised the Azzurri would adopt a three-man defence against Spain, as it was with this system they earned an impressive 1-1 draw in the Euro 2012 group phase.

Good move. Makes the most of Italy's CBs, gives you more men in midfield. Madness for Italy to be using a back 4.

Actually it's pretty smart considering that so far, every time a back 3 has been used Italy have struggled big time, just because these are the Juve players playing in the same formation does not mean it will be a success. Techinically speaking, all of the 3 CBs from Juve have been shockingly bad throughout this competition. Goes to show how average they really are

Chiellini is really no LB. back 3/4 difference was shown up at the Euros. 3 is certainly the way to go.

You really don't like 3-man defenses, do you?

I think given Italy's injuries, it's the best way to go. But I wouldn't play neither Candreva nor Marchisio as AMs. Why not try 3-4-3 with SES, Gila and Giovinco instead?

Yeah I'm surprised with his forward choices.

David Luiz is such a ****. lucky ******* usually gets away with being a **** too.

Chiellini has been constantly played at CB in this competition but he's really been under performing big time. The other two (Barzagli, Bonucci) don't really surprise me though because it's always the same thing with them. Their true colors come out with Italy and it's one mistake after another.


I seriously do not like it as a system, if it works good for the team, but in most cases it just doesn't. The only team that really executes it perfectly is Juve. and imo this Italy side is not anything like Juve even if half the starting 11 is made up of Juve players

I'd rather stick with a back 4 and actually see Prandelli put out a FUNCTONAL midfield line-up instead of the messes he's been putting out in these last few games

Cavani!!

A players true colours are those shown with their club, not country. But I can already see it's a debate not worth having.

Ah, Brazil get lucky again with a late goal.


Like Messi, eh?

Did anyone see Neymar sending two kisses to Rodriguez (?). no wonder they call him Gaymar.

It was Gonzalez not Rodriguez. And what about his acting skills? Good god, Neymar and Barcelona are a perfect match.

Yeah he dives too much. I thought he was pretty mediocre tonight. really awaiting the final to see how this Brazil fares against Spain.

I think zed gave you the perfect answer to that one a post down.

They show their true colours because outside of the Juve unit they're both knuckle head idiots who make mistakes on a regular basis, which is pretty laughable considering they're considered great () defenders by some.

You mean Italy.

No I mean Spain. can't see Italy doing **** against a far better team like Spain. would love to be proven wrong.

Those who dominate club football > those who dominate International football. The real greats can succeed in both though.

He and Barca are meant to be.

Any good quality streams??