Italy
First the world, now Europe!
Those who, on the basis of this season’s Champions League results, are tempted to argue that Italian football has fallen into irreversible decline may have reason to reconsider that assessment by the end of June. Italy have every right to start these finals as one of the favourites, if not the favourites.
It might seem absurd to suggest, given that the Azzurri are world champions, that coach Roberto Donadoni has done exceptionally well to qualify them for Euro 2008. But his task when taking over from Marcello Lippi after the World Cup was anything but straightforward. For a start, there was the inevitable post-World Cup sense of anti-climax. Players who were physically and emotionally drained by their experiences in Germany took some time to recover their best form. In Donadoni’s first three games in charge, Italy were beaten by Croatia in a friendly then drew with Lithuania and lost to France in the opening Euro 2008 ties.
Onslaught of criticism
The bad start led to an onslaught of criticism, and, if that was not bad enough, Donadoni was deprived of two of Italy’s most talented players of the past decade, defender Alessandro Nesta and Roma talisman Francesco Totti, both of whom opted to retire from international football.
The third main problem on Donadoni’s road to the finals was perhaps less obvious. If, on the playing field, Italian football continues to be highly competitive (we will draw a veil over this year’s Champions League, recalling that just a year ago, Milan won the title), off the field there have been problems aplenty over the past two years.
The death of police inspector Filippo Raciti at the Catania-Palermo derby in February 2007 and the deaths this season of Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri and Parma fan Matteo Bagnaresi, not to mention the full-scale Rome riot provoked by Sandri’s death, were just the most obvious reminders of the underlying malaise afflicting the Italian game. UEFA’s decision last spring not to award Italy the 2012 European Championship looked to many like a resounding vote of no confidence in Italian football.
On top of all that, the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal of 2006 had left a bitter taste with many Italian fans. In the context of all these negatives, Donadoni did wonderfully to concentrate on his job and put together an excellent team. His side will certainly not play “champagne” football at the finals but they are a solid, tough, highly organised, highly experienced outfit that will be hard to beat. Win or lose, they are likely to leave the Euro 2008 field with their heads held high.
Interview with Italy coach Roberto Donadoni
Interview with Italy's Gianluigi Buffon
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