And btw, what is up with italian journalists? Accusing sweden and denmark for ganging up on them and plotting a 2-2 draw to kick italy out of the competition. RAI, the TV channel(i think it is RAI) said they would set up extra cameras to monitor the swedish and danish bench to make sure there was no foul play. Some italian journalists got busted while trying to plant a false fax, where sweden and denmark agreed on the outcome of the match. A footy watergate. When are italians going to learn that this only occurs in italian football and not the rest of europe.

There is so much prestige in this match that I predict a win....dont want to guess for which team though.

Well now.. . you see.. . erhm.. . the thing is.. .OMG, Look a flying cow! *points at the sky*

*runs away*

I guess France will win then.

Am I good or what? Bye bye italy  

Hehehe, jesus i wouldn't want to be in the italian sqad on their way home for a million pounds, those guys are going to get spit roasted lol.
Yeah bulgaria fought tooth and nail for it and the Den-swe match was great.

THink your right elan, Germany arn't going to make it. I just cant wait for the England v Portugal match!

ROONEY!

i bet england is not going thru the next match

Well lets take a look at the Portugal v spain match... Portugal looked great on the ball, their footwork etc is brilliant, but they just couldn't create chances for themselves, they couldn't create and get the goals. There is no doubt that they have some bloody class in that team however.

England - They obviously have sevear issues defending against set pieces. However going forward they look strong, and in general so does their defence. Rooney is proving to be quite somthing, and there is no doubt those surging runs can cause chaos.

as i see it now, if england sort out their set piece defence, and beckham and own who both have been weak so far, pull it together, then England have a grea chance...

If they don't .... then heaven help us

OK, where to begin....

I can't stand it when people always point their fingers at Italian soccer players, and begin to say bs stuff like, how they are the oscar winners of soccer always taking bs dives, etc, I think today was a perfect example of how Bulgaria fit that bill and not Italy.

First, I agree Italy did not play the tourny how they normally play or their style of play from the get go.  They lost the 1st game, Italians complaining about the weather and socks hindering their game, I am not inclined to believe that especially since Kenians run thousands of Km marathons barefoot, however, when you analyze their style of play from years past, especially considering that Italy is an offensive/attacking team rather than a defence one, makes me suspicious if perhaps their was "some" validity in their claims; they have always had slow starts at the beginning of tournaments but have always been the attackers and sharp shooters.

If you look at the game and have some soccer experience you will see that the game was decided on the Refs calls and not the players on either team.  There were nurmerous amounts of questionable, and IMO, bs calls the ref was making.  For instance, the penalty kick awarded to Bulgaria, was a bs call if I ever saw one, both players were simply leaning on each other to try and gain control of the ball - ummm, hello? this is soccer, no?.  And even if I was inclined to see the point of view of the Refs perspective, at a deciding game as this one, when making big calls like this, generally refs decide in the favor of the defending team, this is common practice not a personal opinion.

Second, this may sound like a contradiction, and yes it is my biased opinion especially considering that I am Italian, the commentators when I was watching the game here in Canada on TSN were english and scottish and canadian background and they themselves acknowledged that the deserving penalty kick that was not awarded to Italy was certainly warranted.  It doesn't take an experienced soccer play to have seen this, again, a questionable call but w/e.

Third,  as far as the Swe vs Denmark game, and peoples claims that it was set up, I haven't seen the game yet but after all the bs calls on so many italian players for free kicks and questionalble offsides, especially today on Del Piero and how Italian fans were the only nation participating who couldn't get enough tickets to come support the teams and everyone else suspiciously were in the hundreds, whats up with that?;makes me a little suspicious.  The fact that Totti gets a 3 game suspension instead of 1, which I thought was rediciously not warranted, espcially since the video evidence the "Denmark press" provided the "Denmark team" in their complaints, showed that they had a camera for the entire 90mins of play dedicated to Totti alone, makes me fully understand why Italy set-up their own cameras to monitor the Swe vs Den game. The iThis other claim about the planted fax, etc, I haven't heard that, so who knows.

Bottom line is, IMO, Italy's Totti was an idiot for doing what he did and regardless of how much Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen was or was not provoking Totti, he deserved punishment.  Italy did not play the way they normally do and so the Italians could have done a bit of a better job.  Stop knockin Wops...

Nomad you've got to admit there were some pretty creative dives from one or two italians in that mtch however, a couple of comedy trips and spins etc... im not saying anyone else does it - hell ive seen it in just about every match so far - but in the match against Bulgaria they were throwing themselves left right and centre.

Ref had a hard game on his hands, neither team helped at all. I know italy seem to think there is a world wide conspiracy against them now in football matches but i just dont see it. sweden v denmark match was no way a set up, not one smidgen, not a teenie weenie mouse bit. natta, nope, zilch, nein, negative

tis all a pity though, i rather like watching the italians play, been interesting that several people have said though that they have started to shoot themselves in the foot as their clubs spend their money and effort on foriegn players, which has meant the sqad has got weaker and weaker as the current players loose their prime... i dunno

hehe well yeah i must admit i didn't see the whole game, and i did see some creative tripping coming from Bulgaria, but i did see a couple of fantastic ones from italy - one of the guys did a fantastic run, past at least 4 defenders, but he ran out of puff and as he came up to a 5th just inside the box he did a little half jump and floored himself - managing to in absolute agony, before looking up quick enough to see the refs reaction, and hopping up to get on with it in desgust that the ref didn't give him a penalty - it was rather funny...

but then I did see a corker fromt bulgaria, how on earth he thought he was going to pull they eyes over the reff on that one i don't know!!

bye bye germany