Spain 0 Italy 0
Casillas The Hero As Spain Send Italy Packing
Spain 0-0 Italy (Spain win 4-2 on penalties)
Iker Casillas was the hero as Spain progressed to the semi-finals of Euro 2008 after defeating Italy 4-2 on penalties after 120 minutes of football faild to produce a goal.
Full credit goes to Spain in this game. One team played to win and another team played not to lose. I can’t fault Italy’s gameplan of soaking up pressure thinking it would frustrate Spain then lead to a mistake and a goal on the counter attack. If that didn’t pan out they still have penalty kicks to fall back on. That coin flip didn’t go Italy’s way today as Spain were worthy winners as they were the more positive side of the two.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I was more than disappointed with the referee… He failed to call what looked like obvious fouls, then was showing cards left and right for niggling challenges. That said, I wouldn’t trade anything to be a football ref - you really have to be on your toes and be unbelievably observant to catch everything. Makes me wonder about instant replay in certain instances. Would hate to see something like that interrupt the flow of the game though… but jeez, it was plenty interrupted already.
Getting frustrated with the theatrics of some of the players - apparently going down & rolling about for ‘nothing’, bringing play to a halt & allowing their team to regroup. Strategy? BS - that’s plain dishonest play. If you can’t take a bit of a knock & keep going, you don’t deserve to be on the pitch IMHO.
Spain clearly outplayed Italy - although you have to admire how Italy can defend. The ‘defense only’ strategy does make for a boring game for spectators though. Imagine a defense like Italy with the attacking prowess of the Netherlands?