Yeah I mean, what does Chiellini do there? He's been bitten for FFS.

Does Suarez have tiny needle like teeth? If he plays another game in this tournament Sepp Blatter and his mingons should go take a long ride on a bycicle without a seat

Well, all in all a messy match. I think Marchisio got, so to speak, a cumulative red. Not for his own doing, but for all of Italy's dirty fouls before - and Bonucci, Barzagli, Chiellini had many of those. Suarez acted like usual, he's a wild beast without any temper, but Chiellini did provoke him.

In the end, the ref made a mess but it could have ended up even worse.

Why Prandelli decided to take of Balo and give Parolo the nod is beyond me. Not that Balo was any good, but Parolo? That's the kind of move that makes me dislike him.

Danny said Chiellini raised his elbow, but looking at the replays it looks like Chiellini wasn't aware of Suarez being right behind him

What I meant is what do people expect Chiellini to do? Of course he's going to try and push him away. You're playing a game of football, the last thing you expect is someone to be having lunch on your arm. You don't think of how to push him away, you just do it.

In all seriousness though, who do you think tastes better, Vidic or Chiellini?

Yeah, agreed.

@ Filippo, don't know what you're really talking about Uruguay were getting just as stuck in as Italy and made their own fair share of dirty fouls.

That being said it still does not justify a straight red for that challenge

btw kurt, it was Ivanovic he bit, not Vidic. But I guess Ivanovic is better seeing as he took a bigger chunk out of him.

That so far makes it all South American Sides through, only one European so far in this WC...

Ah yes so it was.

Yep. As good as the World Cup has been, the officiating has been so awful.

Please, that is as weak argument as it comes. It's not even the third bite of his career and Chiellini did nothing remotely close to deserve that. That dirty motherfucker should be at zoo and not playing football.

Ref totally ruined the game. You can argue about the Marchisio's red but if Suarez was sent off like he should have been, it's a completely different game with 10 vs 10, ten minutes to go and I don't think they would score.

Prandelli's resigned.

I think after that he had no further option but to.

He made mistakes, mistakes which cost Italy big time. I don't think there was any going back after this

Better to resign now ASAP than get fired too.

I'm talking about the overall mess. Everyone here is right. If you say Chiellini deserved to be carded (yellow) throughout the game, you're right. Same for all Juventini defenders, same for Suarez, Rios, Gonzalez and a few more Uruguay players. My point is, the whole game was a mess.


It's a poor argument, Suarez should have been sent off there. But still, Chiellini was also on the verge of being sent off during the game. It was a dirty match on both sides, that's my argument.

I'd like Capello to be his heir, but it seems he's stuck with Russia, plus seeing how he handles the Russians, I'm unsure. But God please no Spalletti!!

I don't think he's cut out for international management personally.

Still you said it like the previous fouls made by the Italians justified Marchisio's unfair sending off.

A sending off that changed the balance of the game completely because I really couldn't see where Uruguay where going to get a goal from before that.

No matter what happened before hand, Marchisio's challenge was never a red. And that's the issue here.

And to then try to justify Suarez acting like a complete animal by saying "Chiellini provoked him" is even worse in my books

No amount of provocation should ever mean that a player is justified for BITING an opposing player, that is just despicable!!!


Nah, Capello is just not right for NT management, he's too rigid and set in his ways. It would be a mistake to appoint either him or Spalletti atm. Frankly the only man good enough for the job atm is Carlo imo

Very clear that there was no elbowing going on from Chiellini, he just held out his hand slightly when he felt Suarez running into him. Suarez did that completely unprovoked and he needs to be banned from professional game with the NT for a long while.

The fact that that's not the first time he did that makes it even worse, it's obvious he hasn't learnt anything

Also the fact that the game was still at 0-0 when this happens makes the fact that he was allowed to stay on the field even worse

I thought both sides were hard but I didn't see anything dirty. Officiating overall was bad.


Well we can only trust Suarez's reactions to determine that so I'd say Vidic.

Worst Italy I've ever seen, even worse than Lippi's 2010 horror show. Simply unconceivable how they couldn't do a single thing right. No decent combinations in midfield, not a single danger in attack. No grit, no determination, nothing.

Balotelli is the most overrated piece of crap player on the face of the earth. I pray to god some numskull like Wenger or those clowns at Monaco are still willing to spend big cash on him, cos I can't stand his sight any more.

And in all honestly, I'm bewildered at all the comments claiming it was a red on Marchisio. Just, wow.

Dignified and correct unlike Hodgson who's managing to make England worse than Taylor or MacLaren ever did. But Prandelli hasn't resigned, he's only offered it. Not yet accepted.

I'd find it very strange were the FIGC not to accept his resignation at this point

Abete (FIGC president) has resigned as well.

Agreed, how that was ever a red card is beyond me!

Like I said in my first post after the match, Italy never did anything to justify going through with the attitude they've shown in these last 2 matches and playing for the draw today was just asking for it, but the refereeing decisions today completely swung the game over to Uruguay

They created nothing. they were in control, but were going for the draw the way they were playing. was that how they were gonna challenge for the world cup? they failed in their first real test which wasn't even this game.

On a brighter note, I'm glad Pirlo's NT career ended like this.

They've said they hope he rescinds it. They don't want him to go.

As for Suarez, the guy continues to have this bizarre mental health issue where, apparently, he cannot help biting people. That requires genuine therapy, because he doesn't appear to be doing something he actually WANTS to do. Uruguay were in a good position, he was behind Chiellini in the box with the move building up momentum and there was no motivation to bite him. It seems to be some kind of cognitively bound process that he has no control of. I am not justifying the behaviour, just explaining it.

If he was a violent man he'd have kicked him, punched him, headbutted him. But no, it's a bite.

Needs therapy to remove that, CBT being the most obvious.

As for banning him, I think FIFA will be well aware Suarez is profitable to the world cup, and he'll be let off with a warning. From a selfish point of view that's preferable to me, but I accept he should be banned.

This place is so biased, I'm done.

Marchisio is hard done by? Studs the guy on the knee, whilst walking at slow-motion which is apparently an act of pivoting

Pepe on the other hand when the ball is bouncing, makes same amount of contact? Definite red.

It can't be downright stupidity, it has to be bias.

DST and I agree on nothing tonight, and this appears to be a continuation of that. To suggest Italy were any bad or less worse than Uruguay is bias beyond belief. Italy were shambolic and even X-Off, a big fan, suggested it himself.

As for Uruguay, their plan, which I stated beforehand, worked perfectly. I believed they'd contain and stifle till about 60 minutes before starting to up the ante. Italy were in the terrible position of needing a draw, and Uruguay are far better chasing for a goal than they are defending what they have. That's something Italy used to be good at but are now a travesty.

Italy, Spain, England - all deservedly kicked out at the group stage. They're just not good enough any more (never really were in England's case), and their leagues, historically the best, are a major reason why.

What? Come on!! He's grown @ss man who should know better! Trying to pin his biting on some strange mental issue is just going above and beyond! He goes for biting because he thinks he can get away with it if he does it at the right angle to hide his actions! And personally I'd list biting as the highest form of violence someone could resort to. It's what ANIMALS do FFS!!

And if FIFA want to preserve any fake creditability that they have left they simply have to ban him.

I don't know, McLaren didn't even qualify and had no plan in his team. At least Hodgson's picked young players and qualified.

How can you say their plan worked perfectly?

Before Marchisio was sent off they looked like they had zero clue and a goal would have never come if they'd played for days out there.

The entire shade of the game was helped on by the referee when he wrongfully forced Italy to play with 10 men for an entire half and then not sending off Suarez when the game was still at 0-0.

I've reiterated multiple time that Italy didn't show enough, but there is no way anyone can justify the ref's decisions or try to say that Uruguay were the better side, they weren't even doing anything when they had the man advantage FFS

Also the game against Costa Rica showed that Uruguay are absolutely AWFUL at chasing te game, don't know where you got that from. They're best at defending a lead and hitting on the break

Also, the majority of these South Americans PLAY in the leagues that you're blaming for the underperformance of the Europeans, so that's an non-issue imo

Which part of 'he didn't need to hurt Chiellini in any way' did you miss? The move was building nicely, he was in a good position. Why the f*ck would he WANT to bite a defender?!

Er, as for the 'get away with it' he's been banned for 10 games because of it!

Would you keep committing a crime if you kept being punished? Only if you had a mental issue, maybe.

The fact you think he actually WANTS to bite people suggests you have a real black and white view on human behaviour.

They won.

And failed to get out the group for the first time since 1958. That's...ghastly tbh.

That said I did predict Italy and Uruguay so personally I gave England no hope anyway.

Surely Suarez will at least get a one match ban. what message would FIFA be sending if they ignored this??

With so many SA teams in the KO stages it could get out of hand.

Nah.

What does that have to do with it? He was obviously trying to provoke Chiellini into either hitting him or putting him off. Something must have gone through his mind for him to think that this is a great opportunity for him to sink his teeth into the competition.

I think you're making some big assumptions here. This has nothing to do with how I view people.

Neither of us is in his head, so neither of us can be right, but I personally think he does it for the same reason that some players make niggling kicks and shoves when the ref isn't looking. He's not doing it to get an obvious advantage in terms of playing the ball like when you elbow someone.

I just think blaming it on some strange mental issue is going overboard to justify his behaviour.


Thanks to the referee. Italy should have never had to play 45 minutes a man short and Uruguay should have had Suarez sent off when it was still level. How that can go down to tactical mastery is beyond me...

That's how I thought they would play. very Atletico-like with Godin scoring a header on a set piece.

Still don't get how people feel aggrieved by Marchisio's red-card...

That's a yellow at best. He brushed his studs down his leg, sure, but aside from that... How could that ever be a straight red???

I'm confused at this. Not being awkward, genuinely just not sure what you mean. He obviously meant to bite Chiellini, what other explanation is there for doing such a thing? Something he has a track record of too.

http://www.football-italia.net/51063/suare...e-things-happen What a moron...

Allegri is available ...

You guys forgot Roberto Mancini.

Technically it is. Because red is given for a deliberate act to hurt or attack the opposing player. And Marchisio's move did look like a deliberate action. The fact that he didn't actually pull it through and hurt Rios is irrelevant.

Exactly. Even if he made no contact at all with the player it would, by the laws of the game, be a red card.

But where was the intent? His eyes were on the ball, and if it were intentional I would imagine that he'd at least try to hit him more forcefully to make it count

It's like Suarez licking someone and sending him off because the "intent" to bite was there

The intent is that the ball is on the floor and he puts his foot up to the guys leg. Not even in the area where the ball is either.