Italian Revival

Andrea Pirlo bids adieu to all the Monsieur in the French team with his penalty kick

Ribery's injury and Abidal's red card sums up France's miserable night in Switzerland. 10 minutes into the game, France's chief playmaker Ribery had to be subbed off after a clumsy fall with Zambrotta. It was hard to see if France could create any sort of potent attack without Ribery since he was the essence of the team in pace and ball distribution. Then in the 25th minute, disaster is compounded with Abidal being sent off for allegedly tripping Luca Toni in the box. Andrea Pirlo dutifully converted the penalty to bring the Italians 1-0 up. Afterthat, many would have expected that the Italians wrap it up before half time but the score remained the same after Toni squandered a barrrage of great chances.

The Italians continue to push for a second goal in the second half. There were cheers around the Italian fans when they receive news that the Dutch went 1-0 up against up against the Italians in the 54th minute. Meanwhile, the French tried their best to at least equalize with shots from Benzeema and Henry. At the 62nd minute, the win is sealed when De Rossi's free kick cruelly deflected off Henry's boot into the net. More cheers to the Italians for the double confirmation when the Dutch struck again through van Persie in the 87th minute.

What seemed like a disastrous campaign for the Italians after losing 0-3 to Nederland and nearly losing to Romania in the next match was rescued by Lady Luck. The two Italian goals were largely products from fortunes and if they had depended on their own efforts, they would not have gotten anything. Rewinding back the sequence of events, if Adrian Mutu had converted his penalty, the Italians wouldn't even have anything to play for. Before the third round of group of matches, I was commenting to my friends that this France vs Italy match is about 2 stupid underperforming teams competing with each other to win when in the end it did not matter if Romania were to win their match. Of course, that did not happen as Nederland's second string "noob" team still manage to win in the end. Compare that to Portugal whose "noob" team lost against Switzerland. In any case, the Italians should savour the products of their fortune as much as possible before they meet the Spanish, where their streak of fortune could possibly end.