The best defence often wins a European Championships and this is the strength of the current Italian squad. A midfield that is also heavily weighted towards defending could see the Italians become contenders to win the competition despite the recent failure of Dino Zoff's squad to convince many critics.
-Goal Keepers
Francesco Toldo, Christian Abbiati, Francesco Antonioli
-Defenders
Paolo Maldini, Ciro Ferrara, Mark Iuliano, Fabio Cannavaro, Paolo Negro, Gianluca Pessotto, Alessandro Nesta
-MidFielders
Luigi Di Biagio, Demetrio Albertini, Alessandro Del Piero, Antonio Conte, Francesco Totti, Gianluca Zambrotta,
Stefano Fiore, Massimo Ambrosin, Angelo Di Livio
-Strikers
Filippo Inzaghi, Vincenzo Montella
Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi led Italy into the semifinals of Euro 2000 in a 2-0 victory over Romania Saturday as Gheorghe Hagi's career came to a shameful end with a second-half expulsion.
Dino Zoff's Italian team, hardly rated as title contenders before the tournament, has now won four straight championship games. Italy will face either the Netherlands or Yugoslavia in Amsterdam on Thursday for a place in the final for the first time since 1968.
Totti put Italy ahead in the 33rd minute and Inzaghi made up for several previous Euro 2000 misses by scoring just before halftime.
The Romanians, who made it to the final eight after a dramatic 3-2 win over England in the group matches, tried to rally, but lost Hagi in the 60th minute when he was expelled for his second yellow card.
Hagi, 35, who has been his country's star for a decade and had come out of retirement once, was shown the red card for diving to try and get a penalty kick. Portuguese referee Vitor Manuel Melo Pereira had shown him a yellow card only minutes earlier for a foul on Italian midfielder Antonio Conte.
Hagi, who missed the previous game against England because he had received two yellow cards in the tournament, was furious he had been sent off in his 125th game in Romanian colors. He covered his face in despair as he eventually left the field.
-Goal Keepers
David Seaman, Nigel Martyn, Richard Wright
-Defenders Gareth Barry, Sol Campbell, Tony Adams, Gary Neville, Gareth Southgate, Martin Keown, Phil Neville
-MidFielders
Paul Scholes, Steve McManaman, David Beckman, Nick Barmby, Paul Ince, Dennis Wise, Steven Gerrard.
-Strikers
Robbie Fowler, Kevin Phillips, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Emile Heskey
England might face expulsion from the European Championships if its fans persist in violence, European soccer's ruling body said Sunday.
"UEFA will have to consider the future presence of the English team if there is any more violence," said Gerhard Aigner, chief executive of UEFA.
Asked if England could be kicked out, UEFA president Lennart Johansson said: "That shouldn't be excluded."
England returns to Charleroi for its third game against Romania on Tuesday. If the fans misbehave again, the team could told to go home and forget an expected quarterfinal with Italy.
"This cannot go on," Johansson said. "I hope that hooligans will understand what they are doing to their country.
"We cannot neglect what happened in Istanbul, in Copenhagen, in Brussels, in Charlerloi. We cannot take responsibility that someone gets killed on the street or cannot walk safely in the streets."
Prime Minister Tony Blair, in Portugal for a European Union summit, said he hoped the UEFA threat would end the violence. "Hopefully, this threat will bring to their senses anyone tempted to continue the mindless thuggery that has brought such shame to the country," he said.
Johansson noted that in the stadiums at Eindhoven, Netherlands, and Charleroi, the English fans were well behaved and the English team played fairly.
"UEFA calls upon the government of UK and the FA to take every step to stop English hooligans from traveling abroad," Aigner said. "They are a disgrace to their country and a blight on the national team.
"The violence has left us wondering why more wasn't done to prevent hooligans traveling abroad. This cannot be allowed. The UK government owes it to everyone to take steps. We cannot allow more people to spoil the tournament. It is a matter of urgency."
UEFA called an emergency meeting of its executive committee to discuss the violence that led to some 850 detentions and 56 injuries in connection with Saturday's England-Germany Euro 2000 game in Charleroi.
In The News
ENGLAND
Tournament football away from home always present problems for England and they have a poor record in Euro finals. An out of form defence and problems in finding left sided players detract from some good creators in midfield and
exciting strikers.
The Team
In The News
