Article 7 — Euro 12 & Brazil 14
After the chastening and humiliating exit from the group stages of the 2010 World Cup, Marcello Lippi left his post as the manager or CT of the Italian national team for the 2nd time. Lippi admitted later that it was a mistake for him to return as the manager of Italy.
The unenviable task of rebuilding the reputation of the Italian national team fell on Cesare Prandelli. Unlike Lippi and Trapattoni before him, he had not won anything significant as a club manager but impressed in his time as manager of Parma and more notably of Fiorentina.
His style of football was more attacking and expressive than the traditional Catenaccio image of Italian football. He had a tough task at hand though as he didn’t have the benefit of having great quality coming through to replace the outgoing veterans from the previous campaign which was the same difficulty his predecessors faced after the triumph of 2006.
Once again, there was no problem in the qualifiers as Italy qualified top of the group, 10 points clear of the 2nd placed team. However, unlike previous qualifying campaigns where Italy normally did the bare minimum to qualify, Italy was actually playing well in the qualifiers and it renewed enthusiasm among the fans of a new beginning.
Prandelli’s squad selection for Euro 2012 had a mix of a handful of survivors from 2006 (Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo, Andrea Barzagli, Daniele De Rossi), late bloomers (Antonio Di Natale, Barzagli again), players with journeyman career (Alessandro Diamanti, Federico Balzaretti, Emanuele Giaccherini), volatile characters that were pariah under previous management (Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano), players that have had a steady growth in their development (Giorgio Chiellini, Riccardo Montolivo, Claudio Marchisio, Leonardo Bonucci), a naturalised Italian (Thiago Motta) and at least one player that would be classified as an upcoming talent, Sebastian Giovinco.
Giuseppe Rossi was unfortunate to miss out again this time due to a serious knee injury while Domenico Criscito was left out after being implicated in the investigation on another match-fixing scandal. Bonucci was lucky to have survived the cull despite being linked to the same scandal. Prandelli was strict in his code of ethics that he implemented for members of his squad and it was well-respected and adhered to by all members of his squad.
He didn’t have the luxury of selecting players that were amongst the best in the world playing for big clubs that did well in Italy and Europe but was clever to rely on a core group of Juventus players that under the tutelage of Antonio Conte were now the best team in Italy by a long mile.
Italy was in a tricky group with defending European and World champions, Spain, bogey team Croatia and a team that was not easy to play against, Ireland. In the first match, they had the toughest challenge of all, against an imperious Spanish team. Spain was now the number 1 team in the world and at club level, La Liga was now the best league in Europe. Italy entered this game as major underdogs.
However, football was not played on paper though and Italy held its own for a credible 1–1 draw against Spain, matching their much-fancied opponents throughout the game. Pirlo ran the show for Italy from midfield and his assist allowed Di Natale to open the scoring with a great finish.
Next, Italy faced their bogey team, Croatia. The Croatians now had an exciting young team. Italy took the lead through a beautiful free-kick by Pirlo before Croatia equalised through Mario Mandzukic. Croatia, the bane of Italy once again. Italy needed to beat bottom-placed Ireland and hope for a favour from Spain to beat Croatia to qualify from the group stage.
Cassano and Balotelli had been quiet in the first 2 matches but both scored in the final match to beat Ireland. Already qualified Spain left it late to beat Croatia and did a favour for Italy. Italy progressed to the quarter-final to play against England.
In the quarter-final, Italy dominated England, controlling possession and taking the game to England but had nothing to show for it for 120 minutes as the match stretched into extra-time. England had some chances of their own but for large parts played second fiddle to Italy. It would have been terribly unlucky had Italy lost the penalty shootout. The threat of that happening was real when Montolivo missed their second spot-kick, putting it wide.
English goalkeeper, Joe Hart was doing his best to put the Italian penalty takers off by making faces, shouting, jumping up and down but the penalty to take him down a notch was when Pirlo replicated Totti’s penalty from 12 years before, chipping it down the middle. That moment swung the momentum in Italy’s favour. Ashley Young stepped up next to smash his penalty off the bar. Antonio Nocerino scored next to give Italy a 3–2 lead, Ashley Cole stepped up next and his weak penalty was saved by Buffon. Diamanti stepped up next to seal a 4–2 win for Italy and progression to the semi-final. A sweet victory for me personally.
Italy played against Germany in the semi-final, one of the favourites to win the tournament. As a team, Germany has grown in strength as a team and individually so have their players since 2006 playing their brand of exciting football. However, Italy are Germany’s bogey team in international tournaments and they lived up to that tag to once again defy the odds.
After a slightly shaky start, Mario Balotelli produced his best display in the tournament, scoring 2 goals in 16 minutes of the first half. That proved to be enough for Italy as they kept out the Germans who could only score a consolation goal in injury time through a penalty by Mesut Ozil.
The final of Euro 2012 was a repeat of Italy’s 1st match in the tournament against Spain. It was even when they played each other in the first match but it was far from it in the final. Spain produced a great display of football, probably their best performance in the 3 consecutive finals they have been in, utilising their False Nine tactics wonderfully. Spain humbled Italy 4–0. The last time Italy lost a final by a heavy scoreline, they were beaten by another team that is widely regarded as one of the best international teams ever, Brazil in 1970. After winning Euro 2012, Spain of 2008–2012 can lay claim as one of the best international teams of all-time.
From Italy’s perspective, the result and performance were humiliating and embarrassing but it looked like the team had ran out of steam and had no answer to the quality and movement of Spain. The change in tactics from 3–5–2 to 4–3–1–2 worked in the games against England and Germany but not in the final. Italy matched Spain in the first match using the 3–5–2 tactic and should have reverted to that.
We should also acknowledge that Italy lost to a truly terrific team who fully deserved their win on the day. Nobody had expected Italy to go all the way to the final and to reach there was in itself a great achievement but the difference in quality between the two teams was never more obvious.
Italy can take heart from their performances in 2012 and the future looked bright again. The qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil was navigated without any issue, finishing top of their group. They qualified for the Confederations Cup in 2013 by virtue of being the next best European team as the European champions, Spain was already participating as World champions.
Italy had a good showing in this Confederations Cup qualifying for the semi-finals unlike their previous participation in 2009. They were involved in some open and exciting games in the group stage. Their opponents in the semi-final was a team that has grown to be a recent international nemesis and a thorn in my sight, Spain. Italy matched Spain for 120 minutes, fighting toe to toe with them. With a bit better quality in the attacking third, Italy might even have won this game. The game was decided by a penalty shootout which Spain won 7–6 after a long rally of kicks.
The performances since Prandelli took over seem to bode well for Italy, it looked like Italy was progressing well, playing a bit more openly while always being able to fall back on their traditional strength of a solid defence and tactical discipline. It heralded a rejuvenation of Italy.
There was no big surprise in Italy’s selection for World Cup 2014 as it was kept largely similar to the one that did well at Euro 2012 with the addition of some players that emerged after that tournament. Young players Matteo Darmian, Mattia De Sciglio, Ciro Immobile, Mattia Perin and Lorenzo Insigne were selected for the first time in an international tournament. Other new entrants were Antonio Candreva, Alessio Cerci who were both in their mid-20s and another naturalised Italian in Gabriel Paletta. Riccardo Montolivo missed out after he broke his leg in a pre-World Cup friendly.
Italy was in the same group as two other former champions in England and Uruguay as well as Costa Rica, on paper the weakest of all the teams in the group. It was a controlled display of possession from Italy but not as dominant and imperious as the display against the same opponent in 2012. Italy kicked off their World Cup campaign with a 2–1 win. That performance was to be the best Italy could produce in this World Cup.
The remaining two performances lacked energy, speed and creativity. Their gameplay was one-paced and lethargic. It was nothing like what they had displayed at Euro 2012 and Confederations Cup 2013. Italy suffered a shock 0–1 defeat to Costa Rica who had inflicted another shock in their first match, a 3–1 win over Uruguay. The final match between Uruguay and Italy was a final of sorts for both teams. Italy had the slight advantage of a slightly better goal difference and could go through with a draw and it looked like they were playing for that. In a match that was memorable for Luis Suarez’s off-the-ball bite on Chiellini, Uruguay won a dull encounter 1–0 thanks to a trademark header by Diego Godin from a corner.
Italy was bundled out of the World Cup for the second consecutive tournament in the group stage. Another disappointing and embarrassing exit. All the promise and good work by Prandelli in restoring the image of Italy after the ignominy of 2010 flushed down the drain in one bad tournament. It was rumoured that the dressing room was divided and Prandelli lost control of it. There was no way back from that for him. Back to the drawing board for Italy.
