Another wonderful result for Scotland!

If it comes down to the last matchday ( very likely ) at least Italy have the Faroes at home ( 3 easy points ) while France have to go to Ukraine.

As a fan of world football I'd hate to see Scotland progress at the expense of Italy or France. I'd rather see people like Quagliarella, Di Natale, Aquilani, Nasri, Benzema and Ribery shining at that stage not the likes of Darren Fletcher and Mcfadden. It will be a massive embarrasment for UEFA if this happened, since they must take the blame for screwing up their seedings to the extent that the two teams that contested the last world cup ended up in the same group. Especially when you look in other groups and see Greece, Turkey and Norway, three nations that weren't even good enough to qualify for the last world cup heading their group.

Quote:

It will be a massive embarrasment for UEFA if this happened

I think it'll be more of an embarrassment for the French/Italians if it were to happen. But it won't.

I agree with the seedings comment, but not with the farce if Scotland got in opinion. The Tartan army would deserve their place if they make it.

Ambrosini is being picked ahead of De Rossi at the moment, while I think Perrotta is a bit injured.

Watching the game, it was easy to see Buffon and Toni are the 2 indispensible players on the squad, followed closely by Pirlo.

I don't think there should be much institutional bias to ensure the "big" nations qualify. I get sick of the conservative views of fans of big clubs/countries who see the success of minnows as a direct threat to the footballing orthodoxy. Wouldn't the game be very boring if the same teams continued to win the tournaments, and that fairytales were to be subsequently snuffed out?

It is not the fault of UEFA if France or Italy fail to qualify as there are TWO automatic qualifying places.

Don't get me wrong if Scotland qualify fair enough they'd have deserved it. And if one of France or Italy don't make it shame on them. But you have to look at all groups and I just can't understand how UEFA have managed to have France, Italy and Ukraine in one group and Greece, Turkey and Norway in another, it is nonsensical.

I do agree with that

De Rossi also needs to keep quiet about Scotland. Yes, Italy are the better team historically, No that doesn;t mean Italia will win for sure.

U21: Greece 2-2 Italy
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/

zeds wrote:

Don't get me wrong if Scotland qualify fair enough they'd have deserved it. And if one of France or Italy don't make it shame on them. But you have to look at all groups and I just can't understand how UEFA have managed to have France, Italy and Ukraine in one group and Greece, Turkey and Norway in another, it is nonsensical.

All explained by Gabriele Marcotti in The Times on MOnday

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/...riele_marcotti/article2658345.ece

All right. *Gets on soap box*

First off all the reason we don’t have big names in our squad is because it is a very young team, the players are just making a name for themselves on the domestic, international and european competitions: Alan Hutton’s only 22, Scott Brown only 22, James McFadden 24 & Darren Fletcher 23. Also, we have lots of young players that haven’t made it into the international squad that are very talented, plus, some of the older players were very late developers like Lee McCulloch and Paul Hartley. Tell me whats wrong with watching James McFadden? I’ve been watching him since he first broke out into the Motherwell first team when he was a teenager, I witnessed as he tore apart a very experienced Dutch Rangers team coached by Dick Advocaat as a teenager, he has scored 13 goals in 35 internationals, it took Kenny Dalglish nearly 100 games to score 30. Had that goal against France been scored by Ronaldinho, Gerrard or Messi, people would be talking as if this was one of the greatest goals ever scored in international competition. *I* want to see James McFadden in an international tournament because he deserves it.

I don’t think people quite understand what it is we are actually achieving here; we haven’t been in a international tournment since 1998; this campaign started off on the back of a very torrid time under Bertie Vogts, the last time we played France they beat us 5-0. There is no money in the Scottish game most of these players have been brought up by the youth system of the smaller teams in Scotland, against the Ukraine they had a man who was worth £31 million, we had Scott Brown who is worth £4.4 million, slight difference there. We had to kick out a lot of the foreign imports and that has done the Scottish game a world of good (obviously Hearts are the exception). There is a feel good factor here in Scotland and even if we don’t qualify, we will still be very proud of this team. When Celtic fans are praising Barry Ferguson and Rangers fans praising Stephen McManus and Aberdeen fans praising them both this is something we need grab at and hold because it doesn’t happen very often.

Ah, France and Italy did so well in the last European Championships, didn’t they? Who won it again? I think it was Greece. How many superstars did they have? Who can remember their first 11 without googling it? At least people in Lyon and Stuttgart will know who Lee McCulloch, Barry Ferguson, Alan Hutton and David Weir are and people in Milan will remember who Stephen McManus, Scott Brown and Paul Hartley are. And France will remember James McFadden.

People like to see big names in sport win things naturally especially the sponsors, but people also like it when the underdog does well too.
_________________
Scotland 1 - 0 France 07/10/06
France 0 - 1 Scotland 12/09/07

And, as every Man United fan will tell you, Darren Fletcher is shit!

Not in a Scotland top he's not. Maybe he should wear his Scotland top under his Manure top.
_________________
Scotland 1 - 0 France 07/10/06
France 0 - 1 Scotland 12/09/07

Trust me Dels, I'm Scottish and a Man United supporter.

Darren Fletcher is shit.
_________________
ACF FIORENTINA : FORZA LA VIOLA

No, he's not. Not while playing for Scotland.
_________________
Scotland 1 - 0 France 07/10/06
France 0 - 1 Scotland 12/09/07

Half-Time: Italy 0-0 South Africa
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/

Donadoni looks to the future
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/

I really liked the performance from Gli Azzurri today. The players played with a lot of zip and energy, and kept the pressure on S.A most of the game.

Foggia was awesome in his time on the field, as was Rosina and many of the others.

Lucarelli really came alive when Gila came on and freed him up from the lone striker role.

Good hope for the future-- wouldn't mind seeing more of this

As for Donadoni, he has a decent record overall. His first games were iffy , but coming off of the WC win it was going to be difficult. I think he should be given a chance right now to grow with some of te young players

Donadoni picks Palladino
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/

Under-21: Italy 5-0 Azerbaijan
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/

Scotland-Italy line-ups
_________________
Up to the minute news, match reports and comment on http://www.football-italia.net/