A superpower in football, Italy’s prospects for this game is not bright considering they have four dependable players sitting on the bench. After a stretched out game against Australia, they might ran out of fuel against Ukraine.
Defender Nesta is out because of an injury, Marco Materazzi is serving a one game ban today for a red card given against their match with Australia, midfielder Daniele De Rossi remains suspended and forward Vincenzo Iaquinta is still suffering muscle injury.
It is going to be a very difficult climb for Italy although they will be relying heavily on Francesco Totti to score the go ahead goals for the team.
Ukraine on the other hand, is also coming out of a stretched game against Switzerland that saw them playing 120 minutes without a goal. They may have needed penalty shots to advance to the next round; but this shows the kind of character and holding power of this squad.
Ukraine’s midfield is very tough as shown in their game against Switzerland, which could prove to be interesting against Italy who has played the midfield well in hope of a counter-attacking move. So far, Italy have been successful in scoring the first goal while Ukraine was successful in holding opponents to score.
Ukraine superstar Shevchenko will be depended upon to score the goals for their country.
This is going to be an interesting match with both team playing differently. Ukraine is definitely going for the defensive tactics on the midfield while Italy will crack this defense for an attacking formation on the other end of the field.
I have my cards for Ukraine in this game.
Below is the lineup for each teams:
Italy: 1. Gianluigi Buffon, 19. Gianluca Zambrotta, 6. Andrea Barzagli, 5. Fabio Cannavaro, 3. Fabio Grosso; 20. Simone Perrotta, 21. Andrea Pirlo, 8. Gennaro Gattuso; 16. Mauro Camoranesi; 10. Francesco Totti; 11. Alberto Gilardino, Coach: Marcello Lippi
Australia: 1. Oleksander Shovkovsky; 6. Andriy Rusol, 22. Vyacheslav Svidersky, 2. Andriy Nesmachny; 9. Oleg Gusev, 4. Anatoly Tymoshchyuk, 8. Oleg Shelayev, 19. Maxim Kalinichenko, 11. Serhiy Rebrov; 7. Andriy Shevchenko, 10. Andriy Voronin, Coach: Oleg Blokhin
Forecast: Italy 1 – Ukraine 2
[tags]FIFA World Cup, World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2006, Italy, Ukraine, Knockout[/tags]
