Saturday, June 14, 2008

Italy Fumes After Romania Draw in Euro Soccer

ANNOTICO Report

 

The ANNOTICO Report

Italy had a valid goal ruled out, and a debatable penalty awarded to Romania to eke out a 1-1 draw.

This comes on the heels of  Netherlands  beating Italy 3-0 , and then Netherlands beat France 4-1.

This permits Netherlands to play their second string against Romania , and permit Romania to win,

which could prevent both Italy and France from advancing to the next round.:(

 

Current score:  Dutch 6 pts, Romania 2, France 1, Italy 1

Next and Last Games in this Round on Tuesday the 17th

Italy must Win vs France, and Netherlands must Win or Tie Romania 

Win gets 3 pts, Tie gets 1pt, Loss gets 0 pts.

Yes, there are other possibilities if Italy -France Tie, and Romania Loses, but my head is starting to hurt. ;)

 

Italy Fumes After Romania Draw

Tempers are running high in the Azzurri camp after their 1-1 draw with Romania  in a game marked by quite a few controversial decisions.

Goal.com

June 13, 2008

 

Italy had a perfectly valid Luca Toni goal ruled out, and also had a debatable penalty awarded to Romania.

But for Gigi Buffon's miraculous late save, they would already have been out of the tournament, and tempers are beginning to flare.

Italian Federation director Gigi Riva made no bones about the fact that the Azzurri are angry with the decisions.

The players were angry because they know they put in a great performance and were penalised, said the Azzurri legend.

Tonis goal on the stroke of half-time could have changed the game, while thankfully Mutus penalty did not do us too much damage.

It is a bad sign, though. The referee is there to do his duty and I really hope he didnt make decisions based on likes and dislikes, as that would be tragic for Italy and for the entire European Championship.

I dont want to comment on individual incidents, but I will say the referee was not up to the standard of this match.
< BR>Italy had similar complains after Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal against them four days ago, although that one was later confirmed as legitimate by Uefa.

Riva also insisted that the team must motivate themselves further over this.

We must not use this as an alibi, but rather as motivation. I am convinced if we play like we did today, we can play a great game against France, too, he opined.

It would be better for us if France won tonight against Holland, he concluded, well aware that Dutch qualification would see a weak side fielded against Romania, who will qualify if they win on Tuesday irrespective of other results.

The debate over the referee is expected to rage for a while, especially if Italy crash out early.


 

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