When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie… Balotelli. Mad Mario has finally shown up at Euro 2012, and with a tired Spanish side stumbling past Portugal in the semis, the scandal-hit Italians are in the unlikely position of once again (after 1982 and 2006) facing the prospect of winning one of football’s two biggest prizes against the backdrop of widespread corruption in the domestic game. Vicente Del Bosque, on the other hand, is stubbornly sticking to his 4-6-0 system, overlooking both the best (Torres) and form (Llorente) strikers in Europe.
I really can’t be bothered adding music to this, since both countries are kind of crap at it, so here are links to Nick Butler’s pieces on the respective countries’ musical histories from the last World Cup:
-v-
07.01.12
In other news, I have no idea what to do with Torres on my fantasy team.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
lol, that is such a stupid statement.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
Surprised at how good Italy have been overall though.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
Great game so far, a lot more open than I expected.
07.01.12
07.01.12
Come on, Spain were definitely the best team in their group and although they faltered a bit against Croatia and Portugal, Italy have too, it's just been less noticeable because Spain have much larger expectations. Italy were lucky that Germany didn't particularly play well and England were never really an attacking threat. They threw away their lead against Croatia and didn't dispatch of Ireland as easily as Spain did.
07.01.12
07.01.12
Great game so far, a lot more open than I expected."
I will dethrone your h2h unbeaten run ;)
Cos I was building up for Germany being in the final, I only had enough free transfers to get 9 players into the first team. At least you don't need any more than 11 so its not a disaster, but I know when to keep my wildcard for. But yeah, I was expecting this to be 1-1 at most.
"Portugal played pretty well against Spain. Pretty much controled the game"
They did in the first half, but then they tired.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
Against Portugal yea, first half was ours, but the 2nd wasnt pretty far too. Anyway we didnt score, thus we dont have much to complain for. So many missed shots, so many chances. Spain wouldnt have missed a lot of the offensive plays we did. We are yet to have a kickass scorer since Pauleta.
07.01.12
What a dumb move to take Cassano out
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
"Yay, 4 minutes"
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
Why bother picking 15 players though?
07.01.12
Made my fantasy football team 11 Italians as well.. there goes my 5th place finish.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
Spanish players with their kids. Priceless.
07.01.12
07.01.12
But still managed to win it... lol.
Glad I realised we only needed 11. My first time too.
Wonder if I've beaten you cos of those transfers... You got 2 more points than me, but with 2 more players.
07.01.12
He's a great player and all, but god is he a turd
07.01.12
They're probably gonna kill in the US league. Was ranked 7thin the country, but only getting 48 points is gonna hurt.
"He's a great player and all, but god is he a turd"
I like Balotelli. I'm not sure why, but I really do. Maybe it's because reading all these stories about his antics make him seem more human? I'm not sure. But he is a tremendous player.
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.01.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.02.12
07.03.12
07.04.12
did you watch the game
they played well until thiago motta was injured and then it was just a case of having 10 players against probably the best international team ever. and lol england aren't comparable
07.04.12
So this has got to be the most absurd top 10 in a long time.
07.04.12
07.04.12
07.04.12
07.04.12
07.04.12