Wednesday,
September 12, 2007
Scotland, Italy, and France Battle it out
in Group B, European Soccer Championships
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italy
beat Ukraine 2-1
in Kiev , and Scotland beat France 1-0 in Paris, so the standings in
Group B are today ...Scotland 21 points, Italy 20 and France
19, with 9 games played and 3 games remaining, with only the top 2 going
forward in the Qualifiers !!!!!!! [The Group also includes
Group
B is called "The Group of Death" with BOTH World Cup Finalists (Italy
and France).The Scots were initially very pessimistic, and could not have
imagined that they would beat France, BOTH Home and Away, and be atop the group
at this point
Goal.com
September 9, 2007
It wasn't pretty, and there are still questions to
be asked of the Azzurri, but the World Champions
showed sufficient class to twice take the lead against
Udinese's Antonio di Natale proved the hero as he netted goals in each half,
setting
Neither side showed anything even approaching its full potential in this
scrappy game, but
Within minutes, 'Sheva',
Indeed, for these two early chances, the game was increasingly being bogged
down in midfield until the 25 minute mark.
Then, Ukraine were the first to carve out real chances, the ever-dangerous
Shevchenko once again taki ng
advantage of good work up the right to come very close to opening the scoring.
Pirlo put in some superb work to set up Udinese's Antonio di Natale in
the box for a neat finish, and
Nonetheless, Roberto Donadoni must have been
perturbed heading into the half. His side had been torn up on the flanks, Panucci in particular looking every one of his 34 years,
and the defence was not sure of itself at all.
But for all that,
Going into the second half and
Still, Ita ly, while threatening at times, did not take their chances
to kill the game off before the
And when the yellow-blue recovery came, it came with a goal. And, of course, it
was from Andriy Shevchenko. Rusol
set 'Sheva' up for a trademark finish right into the
top corner, and it was game on.
Once again, though, it was di Natale to the rescue,
the Udinese youngster being put one-on-one after a
slide-rule through ball from the classy Ambrosini.
It was perhaps a moment of lax defending but, moreover, it was a great attack
from nothing, and one that
And that sealed the win, as
0-1 Di Natale 40'< BR>1-1 Shevchenko 71'
1-2 Di Natale 77'
Scots Deepen French Blues and
Guardian
Unlimited -
From
Reuters
By
Martyn Herman
September
12 , 2007
(
"It
was one of the greatest and one of the most important goals of Scottish
football," said manager Alex McLeish.
"It
needed the passion Scottish teams always have...It was very difficult to get
this result. We needed a special performance and the players have shown
fantastic confidence."
Elsewhere
across the continent on a busy night of qualifiers European champions Greece
twice squandered the lead to draw 2-2 with Norway in Group C while a resurgent
England were firmly back on course in Group E after crushing Russia 3-0 at Wembley.
Leaders
LATE
WINNER
The
In
Group A leaders
Tempers
boiled over after the final whistle with
Without
suspended striker Thierry Henry, World Cup finalists France struggled to break
down a disciplined
They
were hit with a sucker punch after 64 minutes when McFadden let fly from 25 metres and the ball swerved past the flailing arms of
goalkeeper Mickael Landreau.
It
brought back bitter memories of the last occasion that
"The
next three matches will be decisive,"
Midfielder
Antonio Di Natale scored twice for world champions
"With
"In
these last two games we've blown teams away in the first half hour," said
Owen, who was also on target in the 3-0 victory over
Sotirios Kyrgiakos scored twice
for
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
Italia
Italia
Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net