ITALY

Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio
Via Gregioio Allegri, 14
00198 Roma

They DON'T HAVE
an official website!!

AND FOR THE SEMI FINALS! (Beat Holland 3-1 on pens (0-0 aet)

AND FOR THE FINAL (lose 2-1 to France

EURO 2000 TEAM STATISTICS
Team Stats
Games Played:	6
Red Cards :	1
Yellow Cards :	11
Shots On Target :	31
Shots Off Target :	38
Fouls Committed :	111
Fouled :	96
Corners Won :	31
Corners Against :	15

Player Stats
Goalkeepers
Player		Minutes Played	Goals Conceded	Clean Sheets	Shots Saved	Penalties Saved	Shootout Saves	Shootout Goals Conceded
1	Christian Abbiati	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	Francesco Toldo	583	4	3	39	1	2	1
22	Francesco Anonioli	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Outfield
Player		Minutes Played	Goals Scored	Assists	Red Cards	Yellow Cards	Shots on Target	Shots off Target	Fouls Committed	Fouls Against
2	Ciro Ferrara	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
3	Paolo Maldini	489	0	0	0	1	1	0	8	3
4	Demetrio Albertini	451	0	2	0	1	0	4	7	5
5	Fabio Cannavaro	538	0	0	0	1	0	0	13	7
6	Paolo Negro	90	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	Angelo Di Livio	70	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
8	Antonio Conte	236	1	0	0	1	1	2	8	5
9	Filippo Inzaghi	324	2	3	0	0	6	6	6	11
10	Alessandro Del Piero	318	1	1	0	0	7	7	9	13
11	Gianluca Pessotto	342	0	1	0	0	0	1	2	1
13	Alessandro Nesta	542	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	8
14	Luigi Di Biagio	309	1	0	0	2	2	1	5	3
15	Mark Iuliano	476	0	0	0	1	0	0	11	2
16	Massimo Ambrosini	136	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	3
17	Gianluca Zambrotta	303	0	0	1	2	2	2	9	9
18	Stefano Fiore	408	1	1	0	0	3	3	1	4
19	Vincenzo Montella	108	0	1	0	0	1	3	1	1
20	Francesco Totti	362	2	0	0	1	5	6	14	14
21	Marco Delvecchio	151	1	0	0	0	3	2	3	6

5th July

Zoff joins ranks of scapegoats from Euro 2000

IN CERTAIN countries his achievement would warrant a public holiday or elevation to the peerage, but Dino Zoff's reward for leading Italy to the final of the European championship has been more stark. After a withering assault on his tactical approach by Silvio Berlusconi, the AC Milan president, media magnate and former Prime Minister, the national head coach resigned yesterday.

Given that Italy bucked general expectations by progressing to the final, in which they lost 2-1 to France, Berlusconi's bitter criticism - he described Zoff as the "last of the amateurs" and his team's performance as "unworthy" - appeared distinctly out of tune with public sentiment. After a frequently uneasy two-year spell with his country, however, Zoff has decided that enough is enough.

"I am not taking lessons in dignity from Berlusconi," Zoff said, "and so I am giving up my job. I don't understand why he has to undermine my work, but I don't think it is right not to respect a man who has simply tried to do his job in a professional manner. I've had to take decisions and I know that I'll lose out in the long run. I know what will happen. People will say I acted too hastily. I can't win, I've got experience of that."

A spokesman for the Italian football federation said that Zoff's resignation would probably be accepted, a move that would make the former goalkeeper - who came within a whisker of being the first man to win the European championship as a player and a manager - the sixth Euro 2000 coach to leave his position. Of the semi-finalists, only Roger Lemerre, of France, remains in employment.

Zoff joins Frank Rijkaard, of Holland, Humberto Coelho, of Portugal, Mustafa Denizli, of Turkey, Erich Ribbeck, of Germany, and Bo Johansson, of Denmark, in falling on his own sword, while some who were much less successful, Kevin Keegan, of England, among them, have vowed to continue.

Lacking Christian Vieri, the injured Internazionale forward, Italy's strengths had a more defensive flavour, yet few would argue that their display in Rotterdam three days ago matched that of France. Instead, Berlusconi professed himself to be "indignant" that Zoff chose not to man-mark Zinedine Zidane, the France playmaker.

Last night, the outspoken leader of the Forza Italia party refused to back down. "I can't believe it," Berlusconi said. "I have never offended anyone, least of all Zoff. I did not denigrate his work, I made a tactical criticism which I'm sticking to." He can expect an interesting phone call. "I will reply to Berlusconi personally," Zoff said.

The Times

Mon 03 July

Italian party cut short in sudden death

Playing against most people's favourites for the tournament, you would have perhaps expected the Italians to be in more cautious mood.

But in the build up to the final of EURO 2000™ they were the life and soul of the party. Stadhuisplein was a heaving throng of Del Piero shirts, tricolore flags and sunglasses throughout the day. If only they knew how it would all end.

Perhaps they were making the most of it before the almost inevitable defeat at the hands of the world champions.

"Forza Italia" was the popular anthem and the morass of merry drinkers was dancing on tables and singing at the top of their voices hopeful that their intrepid defence would once more come to the rescue in the big showdown. They were keen, however, to point out that their game is not all about catenaccio.


"We have been tainted with the label of anti-footballers," said Vincenzo from Rome. "But we have some of the best strikers in the world.

"Totti has had an exceptional tournament and Delvecchio and Montella are also great forwards who don't even get on the pitch."

"We are the Fabio Cannavaro fan club," announced Pietro, who also hails from Rome. He had come with 20 friends with a 50-foot banner which read: "Cannavaro, your people from your land are here to see you prevail."

Pietro and friends were all dressed in Italian shirts with the number five printed on the front and back, all signed by their hero. "Nobody can beat him," continued Pietro. "Either in the air or on the ground. He is the reason we are in the final."

France it seemed held no fear for them. "We fear nothing and no one," said Primo who lives in London. "It only took us three hours to get here by car. So we don't fear speeding either."

Unsurprisingly the mood was a little different after the game. "How would you feel," said Matteo, his Italian flag dragging in the dirt behind him.

"Where that extra five minutes of injury came from I just don't know. And then to lose on the golden goal is too much.

"They should abolish that rule. And I'm not just saying that because we lost."

The four lads that made the 20-hour train journey have a long trip back to Cosenza. "We came here to see Stefano Fiore," said Carlo.

"He is from our town and one of us. We are proud of him despite the defeat." They cut a sombre silhouette in the haze of the distant floodlights and they trudged off to a rendition of "I will survive". Maybe next time.


Official Site

Italians revel in backs-to-the-wall role

Kevin McCarra
in Amsterdam

THE gloss of fame rubs off quickly in an abrasive match. The announcement that Alessandro Del Piero would return to the Italy side might have been a restoration in the fullest sense. To admirers of Del Piero, it was as if a monarch had recovered his throne. The Juventus attacker, however, was soon back among the commoners when the dismissal of Gianluca Zambrotta forced him into chores on the midfield assembly line, where he helped his team to piece together a remarkable fortitude.

With earnings of almost £3 million a year at his club, it can be only pride that motivates Del Piero, after his knee operation, to establish that he still merits wearing the playmaker's No 10 on his back. Last night, however, he and the other Italians had deeper need of the humility that enabled them to scrap and resist in a seemingly hopeless cause.

Del Piero's initial efforts to show guile, in any case, had been embarrassing and one attempt at a slippery turn was inept as Frank de Boer deprived him of the ball. He was not ready for the spotlight and, despite his team's rage at being reduced to ten men, it suited him better to labour in the shadows of the right wing.

No other nation adjusts to a disadvantage so swiftly. Italy are not the best team in the world, but they might be the best-schooled. They hardly needed the shouts from Dino Zoff, the coach, to tell them to rearrange themselves into a back four, with Fabio Cannavaro moving out of his role as one of a trio of centre-halves to take up a position on the right. Until this tournament, Zoff had preferred a 4-4-2 structure. All that was lacking, after the departure of Zambrotta, was another forward to link with Filippo Inzaghi.

These are not exactly the Italians of yesteryear. The bookings for dissent of Francesco Toldo and Paolo Maldini, who proved that it is possible to gain more than a hundred caps and still have hothead moments, established that the present occupants of the jersey are not quite as icy as some of their forebears.

Composure, briefly, eluded them and the folly of the supposedly discreet tug on Patrick Kluivert, which a sharp-eyed referee happened to notice, put them on the verge of anarchy. Toldo's inspiring save of the penalty kick was a rallying call. It was proof to all of them that they could still compete. By the time Kluivert fluffed Holland's second attempt from 12 yards, after 62 minutes, one hesitated to predict the outcome.

Italy are frequently thought to be marinated in a jaded worldliness, but they prosper, too, because of an implacable spirit. Some of their defenders in bygone tournaments, such as Claudio Gentile, have shown a grim determination to stop the opposition that put them beyond the pale, as well as the rules of the game. There is, though, a deeply honourable tradition as well.

The unsurpassable Franco Baresi came back from knee surgery required in the middle of the 1994 World Cup to nullify Brazil in the goalless final. He missed, in the manner of the Dutchmen last night, as Italy lost in a penalty shoot-out, but such tasks were never in his job description. Though Baresi had the undemonstrative habits of a person who dreads a dip in concentration, he might, in retirement, have risked a smile of approval for Alessandro Nesta's display in Amsterdam.

Nesta, 24, has already been captain of Lazio for two years and the strength of character that brought the early promotion was evident against Holland. There were a few minutes early in the second half when, twice, he had to enter into a dangerous duel with Bergkamp. On the first occasion, he had actually lost the ball to the forward but snapped back to regain it. On the second, Holland were breaking and Bergkamp seemed set to release Zenden until Nesta made the lunging tackle that blocked the route.

This was not a great match, but as relentless attacking met resourceful defending, it proved a classic contrast of styles.

The Times

ArenA pitch too hard say Italy

June 28, 2000

AMSTERDAM, June 28 (copyright: Reuters) - Italy said on Wednesday the pitch at the Amsterdam Arena where they are to play their Euro 2000 semifinal against the Netherlands was too hard.

"It's not great once you're on it," striker Francesco Totti said after the Italians trained in the stadium in preparation for Thursday's match.

"From a distance it looks great but it's not like the pitch in Brussels. Brussels was an excellent surface."

"I hope it doesn't affect the game."

The turf has been problematic at the Arena since the state-of-the-art stadium was opened. Critics say the sliding roof deprives the grass of sunlight.

"It's hard. It's not great as a pitch, but the stadium itself is amazing," centreback Alessandro Nesta said.

Fabio Cannavaro, who will partner Nesta in defence against the Dutch, said: "the ground is a bit hard but this is one of those stadiums that gives you a real urge to play."

"It's everyone's dream to play in a stadium like this, even if it will be full of 50,000 hostile fans."

24th June

Zoff keeps Italian press playing guessing game

Lynne Truss (The Times)

THE amazing news is that they practise penalties. At the Italian training ground in the Belgian town of Geel yesterday, the Azzurri prepared for the quarter-final against Romania today, and one after the other, in front of goal, lined up to chip and blast their penalties into the net. It took one aback, I must say. One assumed that if Italians did indeed practise penalties, they aimed to hit the crossbar with a resounding thwack while hurling themselves to the ground in glorious latinate despair.
Here is a warning. If one were to guess the spirit of the Italy team by the demeanour yesterday of their coach, Dino Zoff, all your money would be on Romania tonight. He gave a very strange performance yesterday. Not understanding a word until it was translated, I can report that his shrugging, hangdog body language spoke eloquently of the other team just being better on the night.

Evidently his national press are being soft on him at the moment (six goals in three matches; a resounding nine points to win group B), but on the other hand he knows he will be martyred on a gridiron if Italy do not beat Romania. All they can question him on at the moment is "Why not Del Piero?" and "When Del Piero?" Del Piero scored in the 88th minute in the group match against Sweden, whereas Inzaghi, Zoff's preferred striker, has not scored in open play for 15 games.

But if Zoff was low key under questioning, on the pitch everything looked great. It was five o'clock when the boys came out, and by no coincidence a number of them sported quite exquisite five o'clock shadows. Their hair was gorgeous; and they were cheered at every athletic dodge and caper by a crowd of about 400 fans who had come out despite the cold and gusty weather to wave little Italian flags and scream "Paolo!" through KFC Geel's perimeter fence. Having never seen football training before, I wondered whether it would be at all like PE at school, when everyone had to wait while Nesta, for example ("You're useless, Nesta!"), was made to do it again and again until he got it right. Happily for the dignity of all concerned, it wasn't.

After resting almost his entire first team for the match against Sweden (and winning 2-1 anyway), Zoff is expected to field the usual suspects tonight, who are: in defence Mark Iuliano, Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro; in midfield Paolo Maldini, Stefano Fiore, Demetrio Albertini, Antonio Conte and Gianluca Zambrotta; in attack Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi.

Incidentally, Inzaghi was the only player to pop over to the fans. He signed autographs and collected gifts (some yellow roses and a cuddly Tigger). Oddly the crowd didn't ask for Del Piero instead, or ask why Inzaghi doesn't score. Perhaps they agree with Zoff that, at this level, a Del Piero more or less makes little difference. Especially when you can always bring him on to score later if you're in the least bit worried.

Meanwhile, the penalty practice did not escape the eagle eyes of the press. From now on in this competition, the golden goal operates, but with Italy's luck they will be shooting it out, because life is just beautiful that way. Does Zoff have a list of penalty-takers? What if the game is 0-0? Has he thought of that? What if Romania deliberately play for a 0-0 result?

Good grief, the Romanians are saying the ref will favour Italy; what do you say to that, Dino? To most of these questions, Zoff was sanely dismissive, but he did reveal that he does not have a list of penalty-takers; the boys could volunteer when the time came.

And he would not be drawn on the Del Piero thing. In fact, it's quite possible he's just winding people up for the fun of it. "I will announce the team on Saturday, as you well know," he said. Resting your top players for ten days since the game against Belgium may have taken the edge off them, don't you think?

No, he didn't think so. Rest was good for them; they were fine. It made you realise what a lot of worry-gutses Zoff has to deal with every day. No wonder he looks weary behind his desk and doesn't speak up very much.

Yet he's clearly a cunning man. When he organised his men into teams for their practice match, he separated Inzaghi and Totti from the rest of the first-choice team - and didn't say why. Was it to give the lads a better game against their own defence? Or was it just a clever ruse to incense and panic the Italian press still further?

19th June

"I was more satisfied after our other two matches," a stone-faced Zoff growled after his experimental side beat Sweden 2-1 to complete a clean sweep of group B.

"We started a bit slowly. Early on, we didn't show the necessary determination for a match at this level."

"The fact that we scored two goals was the most positive thing about the performance but on the negative side we suffered too much in some circumstances."

"We didn't support the two forward players well enough."

Italy had already qualified for the quarterfinals as group winners before the tie and could have afforded to lose to a Swedish team which desperately needed a win.

Zoff therefore rested virtually his entire starting lineup. Captain Paolo Maldini, goalkeeper Francesco Toldo and midfielder Gianluca Pessotto were the only survivors from the side which beat Turkey in their opening match.

Zoff described the personal performances of all his players as "good," without going into details.

Asked what he thought of his experimental striking partnership of Alessandro Del Piero and Vincenzo Montella, he replied: "good."

Zoff gave a mixed opinion of Del Piero, who looked isolated at times up front but scored a fine winner with a strike from the edge of the box in the 88th minute.

"He created a positive doubt for me," Zoff said, hinting that the Juventus forward could figure in Italy's plans later in the tournament. "But there was certainly also a negative doubt with Del Piero."

Zoff said he did not feel Italy would start as the favorite in its quarterfinal match, which will be against either England, Germany of Romania.

"We don't know who our opponents will but whoever it is we won't start as favorites," he said. "From this point on all the teams left in the competition will be strong and so we'll have a 50 percent chance."

(Nando)

11th June

Penalty was a lucky call - Inzaghi
June 11, 2000

Italy match-winner Filippo Inzaghi admitted that the controversial penalty that gave his side an opening 2-1 Euro 2000 victory over Turkey was a lucky call.

"We saw the television replays of the penalty. The guy blocked my path. At that point I couldn't just disappear. Luckily the referee whistled," the Juventus striker said.

"Sometimes it can go the other way."

Italy captain Paolo Maldini said that Scottish referee Hugh Dallas had surprised him when he pointed to the spot after Inzaghi was downed by Turkish captain Ogun Temizkanoglu in the 68th minute.

Inzaghi converted to make the score 2-1 as the largely Turkish crowd behind the goal whistled furiously and threw plastic bottles and other objects on the field.

"It was strange because this referee never used the whistle," said Maldini. "Sometimes it happens to you and sometimes to the other team.

"But we deserved to win, definitely."

Dallas made no bookings during the match and generally waved play on in a lively encounter at the Gelredome.

Turkish coach Mustafa Denizli said he did not believe the penalty should have been given.

"According to my position on the bench I didn't have a good view but I don't think it was a penalty. But another opinion from our team is that Sergen (Yalcin) says it was a penalty," he said.

"I am not in a position to say much but I saw two decisions that changed the fate of the match. But I might be wrong."

copyright Reuters.

ITALY : There is so much talent in the squad that you cannot write them off based on mediocre play up to the championship. Their play was inventive and effective except for one bad defensive lapse leading to Turkey's goal. Bench strength is among the best; if the winning attitude spurs on their confidence, watch out! (Seamus Malin, www.fuxito.com")