Euro 2012, Group C—PGE Arena, Gdansk, Poland.
SPAIN 1-1 ITALY (FULLTIME)
Goals: Di Natale (Italy) 60', Fabregas (Spain) 64'
Lineups
Spain: Casillas, Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Alba; Busquets, Xabi, Xavi; Silva (Navas), Iniesta, Fàbregas (Torres)
Italy: Buffon, Bonucci, De Rossi, Chiellini, Maggio, Motta (Nocerino), Giaccherini, Pirlo, Marchisio, Cassano (Giovinco), Balotelli (Di Natale)
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Well, that's it from me for now. It's been great; hope you enjoyed the commentary and enjoyed the game.
Make sure to check my profile later in the day for post-match analysis, and check out our live blog for Ireland vs. Croatia, coming to you in just under 50 minutes.
FULL-TIME!
Great first game of Group C; both teams will be satisfied with the result. Both teams are heavily favored to qualify for the knockout stages; this result sets them well on their way.
92'—SHOT FROM XABI ALONSO!
Good passing by Spain, but Italy's packed the box and Spain are forced to pass it out of the box for a shot. Xabi Alonso makes good contact with the ball, but it fizzles just wide.
Only a minute of action left now. Poor cross from Arbeloa.
I swear I've heard Ian Darke say "the old Fernando Torres" at least 10 times now. We get it; he used to be amazing, now he isn't. Let's not bury him in it now.
89'—CHANCE FOR ITALY!
Great passing by Italy gets them well into Spain's box, but Marchisio can only shoot at Casillas. Either Casillas is the king of positioning or the Italians aren't very good at directing their shots; though in that situation Marchisio hardly had much space to place his shot.
Same old story for Torres:
Torres really does put himself in dangerous situations. Just can't finish to save his life right now.
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) June 10, 2012
85'—THIRD (AND BEST) CHANCE FOR TORRES!
Torres is played through again, and his run and movement is good, but his chip/hit is too high and goes over the goal. A real shame; the criticism for Torres will surely start piling up having squandered three good chances now.
82'—Torres gets in good positioning, but makes the wrong decision in trying to make the pass and loses the ball.
Alvaro Arbeloa picks up a yellow card, as does Torres shortly after.
Well, I predicted a 1-1 draw, and it looks like that's what we'll see unless either side can produce a moment of magic in the final 10 minutes or so. I'd say that both teams deserve a point though; both have worked hard and neither team has really dominated the other.
79'—YELLOW CARD!
Giorginio Chiellini is carded there, free kick to Spain on the edge of the box.
Xavi takes it, but hits the wall and it goes out of bounds.
77'—BRILLIANT BY GIOVINCO!
Giovinco creates a great scoring opportunity for Di Natale to score, but he's forced to stretch and his contact forces the ball wide instead of on target.
Well done from Giovinco though, showing his play-making abilities.
Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Don't underrate that brilliant piece of goalkeeping by Buffon—Torres did nothing wrong; most keepers would've gone to ground on that and gifted Torres an easy tap-in. Lots of experience at work there.
75'—GOLDEN CHANCE!
Torres has the opportunity to score with his first touch! But Buffon reads his intentions perfectly and doesn't go to ground, stopping Torres in his tracks.
74'—SUBSTITUTION: Torres for Fabregas
That was fast. 16 minutes (plus injury time) for Torres to prove his worth.
72'—Torres warming up! Will he be the man to score the winner?
Meanwhile, Cassano's substitution looks to have given Spain a greater foothold in the game. Navas crosses by Alba's hit goes wide. Good opportunity tho; a midfielder or striker might've scored that.
70'—End to end stuff here. Spain's attack really has burst to life with that goal, but we'll see how they perform without David Silva and without a center-forward. Really exciting game now though.
Navas wins a corner, and Sergio Ramos tries a bicycle kick but the box is too crowded for it to work.
SUBSTITUTIONS
Two substitutions to bring you up to date. David Silva brought off right after assist for Jesus Navas, while Cassano is finally given a rest as Sebastian Giovinco is brought on.
63'—AND THERE'S SPAIN! GOAL!!!
We wondered how Spain would react, and this is how they did it! David Silva shows his class with a magnificent ball to Cesc Fabregas, and all he has to do is lash it into the back of the net.
Spain 1, Italy 1. Game on.
60'—GOAALLLLL!!!!!
It's been coming, and who better to score than the substitute! Di Natale gets fed the ball beautifully by who else than Andrea Pirlo, and Di Natale perfectly flips it past Casillas!
1-0 Italy, how will Spain react?!
56'—SUBSTITUTION:
Cesare Prandelli's seen enough, Mario Balotelli off for Antonio Di Natale.
Good move by Prandelli; Balotelli's on a yellow card and been off-form all day long; he'll get another chance in another game.
Can Di Natale show the same lethal striking for Italy that he's shown for Udinese?
55'—BALOTELLI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
Sergio Ramos messes up terribly, gifting Balotelli a one-on-one opportunity with Casillas, but Balotelli inexplicably strolls towards goal and allows Ramos to recover with a tackle!
Completely wasted opportunity by Balotelli.
51'—CHANCE FROM INIESTA!
Now THAT was dangerous! Spain attack again and Iniesta almost scores, but his shot is just barely deflected out by Buffon.
Spain look to be pushing up the tempo of the game. We could be in for a good second half.
49'—CHANCE!
Good shot by Fabregas, but again, not something that ever looked like it was going to go in.
The corner ball goes outside the box, and eventually Xavi takes an off-target shot.
46'—And we're back. No changes for either side. We'll see how long both teams go before they ring in the changes.
Stats:
The ever-excellent OptaSports has some excellent stats for this game so far. First up, half-time stats:
OptaJose @OptaJose
45 – Spain vs. Italy HT stats: Shots 8-7 On target 2-4 Possession 63%-37% Fouls 7-10. Oranges.
Surprising to see that Spain has had 63% possession...certainly hasn't felt like it. Next up, the passers:
Opta @OptaJean
3 – Players who made the most successful passes in the top 5 European leagues in 2011/12: Pirlo (2778), Xavi (2689) & Alonso (2473). Trio.
Finally, WhoScored.com with some more in depth stats:
WhoScored.com
@WhoScored
- ✔
Spain 0-0 Italy (HT): Shots(on target) 8(2) - 7(4), Possession 63% - 37%, Pass accuracy 88% - 81%, Aerials won 100% - 0%, Tackles 17 - 14
BR Comments:
Jazel Morffe, normally a big advocate of more midfield as a Barca supporter, doesn't like the way Spain plays with more midfielders:
This is pathetic. Starting Alonso AND playing with a false 9? Well, that's even worse! When Barcelona starts so many midfielders, it usually means MORE possession. I guess that doesn't apply for Spain.
Grant, didn't appreciate my comment on the lack of talent on Italy's bench:
How can you say Italy is low on talent for the subs? Ogbonna is a promising young CB, Abate is a pace RB and (usually) reliable. Sure, Spain is better on the subs portion but I'd still say that Italy is pretty dang talented there as well. And you mentioned that Italy brought 2 keepers on the bench....well...so did Spain.
I guess I should've said "attacking talent." Defenders are rarely brought on to add more attack to a team because, well, that's just counter-intuitive. Whereas Spain have more than five different game-changers on their bench, Italy only really have two, and only Giovinco is a player I'd label dynamic.
Then again, you only need one "game-changer" to change a game.
Halftime BR Twitter Wrap:
Tom Kinslow of BR is also of the opinion that Spain will need to change things in the second half:
Fabregas as a false 9 isn't working for Spain. It's time to get a striker on the pitch. Italy fiesty though. Could steal this.
— Tom Kinslow (@TomKinslow) June 10, 2012
World Football Lead Writer Will Tidey thinks Fernando Torres' introduction is right around the corner:
Cracking first half. Italy the better side, Spain will surely release the Torres sooner rather than later #euro2012
— Will Tidey (@willtidey) June 10, 2012
World Football Community Leader Matthew Buening adds to the chorus of opinions calling for a system change for Spain:
I think someone forgot to tell the Spanish that they are allowed to shoot inside the box. #midfieldersarenotstrikers
— Matthew Buening (@MatthewBuening) June 10, 2012
HALFTIME!
Good half of action, but Spain's no-striker system definitely has not worked as planned. Italy have done well, but Balotelli has been limited and has not come up with the good yet. Italy will want to capitalize on their momentum before a Spain goal kills it.
45'—HEADER BY MOTTA!
Another very dangerous attack; this time Cassano's cross finds Thiago Motta, whose header is on the mark but right at Casillas.
44'—CHANCE!
Great pass from Xavi plays Iniesta in, but with an Italian centre-back level with him, he can only shoot above the goal.
The ever-witty Mirror Football sum up how many have felt about Spain's offense so far:
Watching Spain going forward at the moment is like when you pick up a FIFA controller and the controls haven't been switched to 'Alternate'
— MirrorFootball (@MirrorFootball) June 10, 2012
40'—Half-chance! Xavi lifts the ball in the air in the box to Fabregas, but Fabregas is never going to get to it above one of Italy's center-backs. Foul, and the ball is back to the Italians.
Ian Darke of ESPN just called the game a "slow-burner." Have to agree.
38'—YELLOW CARD!
The referee has been very lenient with Balotelli, but he's finally had enough and gives him a yellow card before half-time. Worrying for the Italians...Balotelli will have to be much more careful going forward.
36'—GREAT VOLLEY!
But it's straight at Casillas who comfortably gets it under control.
35'—Another good chance from Cassano! His shot gets deflected wide by Casillas, and Balotelli fouls a Spanish defender on the follow. Ball back to the Spanish.
Italians still looking much more dangerous than the Spanish for me.
32'—Again, way too much passing for me, not enough selfishness. Fabregas was in-line with Italy's defense, but chose to pass it back out to Xavi. Opportunity wasted.
On the other side of the pitch, Cassano with a cheeky foul on Casillas that probably deserved a yellow card. Let off there for the unpredictable Italian.
30'—Solid hit by Iniesta from Spain's corner, but Gianluigi Buffon gets done comfortably to stop it.
27'—Spain are trying to play Barcelona-style but doing it far too slowly and without some of the key players of Barcelona, like Dani Alves and Javier Mascherano.
A free kick by Xavi is easily cut out and the ball goes back to the Italians.
25'—Great run through the defense by Iniesta, but Daniele De Rossi comes up massive once again with a good block. Tight angle for Iniesta to do anything from there though.
22'—CHANCE!
Great through-ball to Cassano, and his shot just fizzes wide of the post! Balotelli arrives just a tad bit too late...any earlier and it would've been an easy tap-in for the Italian.
20'—This whole no striker deal hasn't worked for Spain thus far. So many technical geniuses, but you need someone who'll selfishly take the responsibility of putting the ball into the back of the net upon himself.
But who knows, one goal is all the vindication Vicente Del Bosque needs for his system.
16'—Italy have defended well so far, especially Daniele De Rossi, who's been great in defense. Maybe this should become a regular thing for him; both Roma and Italy could do with a defender of his quality in their back-line.
13'—CHANCE!
First good set piece and shot of the game, courtesy of a Pirlo free kick. Iker Casillas was well-positioned to deal with it though.
12'—Another half-chance for Spain! The team breaks from its half, but David Silva can't beat his defender one-on-one and tamely hits the ball to Buffon.
Free kick to Italy now on the edge of the box.
11'—Now Italy go on the offensive with Cassano finding Balotelli, who's far shot hits a Spanish player and goes out for a corner.
Another poor corner from Pirlo though, which gets cleared for a throw-in.
8'—Half-chance! Lots of passing around the box by the Spanish, but they take too long as no one wants to hit it. It gets cleared for a corner kick.
The corner kick isn't bad as it finds a Spanish player, but eventually David Silva has to take a shot from outside the box that goes over the goal.
7'—Set pieces a bit lacking so far. Badly hit free-kick from Andrea Pirlo first, then a corner kick which comes to nothing.
5'—A bit of history from one of the commentators: Spain have never beaten Italy in regular time in an international tournament. Will this be their first time?
Foul on Christian Maggio by Jordi Alba.
2'—Cesc Fabregas tries to make a run in behind, but Leonardo Bonucci cuts it out.
1'—We're off!
National anthems are underway. Last time Spain and Italy faced off in the Euros (Euro 2008), we were treated to an absolute spectacle, with Iker Casillas besting Gianluigi Buffon in the penalty shoot-out.
Obviously, extra-time isn't an option this time around, and Spain are firmly favorites this time around having won Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. Will this enable Spain to win it this time around, or will Italy spring an upset as under-dogs?
The captains are shaking hands now (two goalkeeper captains!) and we'll be underway momentarily.
Don't forget to tweet me your thoughts and opinions on the game throughout the game! I'll also feature comments from the comment section throughout the game.
Here are the substitutes for this match:
Spain: Reina, Valdes, Torres, Navas, Juanfran, Albiol, Cazorla, Llorente, Javi Martinez, Negrado, Mata, Pedro
Italy: De Sanctis, Di Natale, Balzaretti, Barzagli, Montolivo, Abate, Sirigu, Nocerino, Giovinco, Ogbonna, Diamanti, Borini
Spain's bench shows how incredibly talented their national team is. That bench by itself is good enough to beat most international teams in the world. There are three strikers on the bench...will any of them see playing time today?
Italy's bench is actually surprisingly low on talent. Di Natale is a scoring threat, and Giovinco is always capable of surprising, but that's where it stops. For some reason, Prandelli has included two goalkeepers and four defenders on his bench; we'll see if any of them actually see game-time vs Spain.
Jasper Juinen/Getty Images Good morning guys, and I hope you're as excited as I am for this huge Group C clash between Spain and Italy. Starting lineups have been added to the opening slide.
Both teams are adopting some pretty unorthodox tactics for this game. Spain will not be utilizing a striker; Cesc Fabregas will start as a false nine for his country. Fernando Torres starts on the bench.
Italy's lineup is a little more as-expected, but they'll be starting in a 3-5-2 instead of their usual 4-4-2. Emmanuele Giaccherini is handed a surprise start; this match will be his international debut. Daniele De Rossi will start this game a center-back, as expected.
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