2
The Swift in Olive-Plum_1190
(24.06.2013 05:16)
0
Tactically, before the match the biggest question to answer for Roberto Donadoni was the choice of Vincenzo Iaquinta's replacement (the Juve striker had to be sent home this morning due to increasing flu symptoms). The Italian coach decided to pick Fabio Quagliarella, who went on to complete the attacking trio made up of Luca Toni and Antonio Di Natale. Also, despite his precarious form, Lyon's Fabio Grosso was chosen over Giorgio Chiellini for the left-back role, a move which actually turned out to be a winning one. On the other end, German coach Klaus Toppmoller fielded a compact Georgian team, whose formation was as difficult to read as the names of its players are difficult ot pronounce. Because of their limited technical baggage, the visitors essentially had to rely on a tight defensive mesh, and hope to hit the Italians with whichever break they could get.
The first few minutes of the match passed by exactly according to expectation: constant double-teaming on Luca Toni, and iron-tight pressuring of the Azzurri ball possession in their defensive third. From the initial phases, you'd actually have to wonder if the word ‘catenaccio' didn't have some very ancient roots somewhere in Tblisi. Anyways, while the visitors' choice to concentrate all their efforts in defense resulted in very few (read: none) scoring opportunities for Georgia, one would have expected the Azzurri to try something more to break the deadlock. Unfortunately, despite the usual ‘grinta' exhibited by Gennaro Gattuso, and the excellent energy and cover work of Massimo Ambrosini, the Italians couldn't manage to create any sting.
The first ‘opportunity' (if one may call it that way) was a 25m shot by Fabio Quagliarella, miles over the bar. The Udinese striker is having quite a poor run of form at the moment, a situation which was only made clearer by tonight's performance (poor shooting, and an average contribution to the team effort, at best). In contrast, despite the asphyxiating man-marking he was being subjected to, Luca Toni demonstrated once again that he is an irreplaceable piece in the Azzurri squad: the target man transformed every aerial ball sent to him into a playable pass for http://cheapjerseyssite.weebly.com/ - http://cheapjerseyssite.weebly.com/ his teammates, and often created danger himself due to his presence on high crosses. On one of such crosses at the 27th (courtesy of a great delivery by Di Natale), the Bayern man had the perfect opportunity to open the score for the Italians, but his headed effort hit the post and rebounded clear! 4 minutes later, another good chance for Toni (this time from an Andrea Pirlo free-kick cross) was sent slightly over the bar.
While Quagliarella was still trying to find himself, and Luca Toni was being… well… Toni, what about Tot?2 Di Natale? The remaining piece of the Azzurri attacking trio was doing what he does best: constant changes of pace, exploiting his agility and technical baggage, and one-touch passing trying to open up space. The Udinese striker had a very good chance at the 37′ minute mark, following an average defensive clearance of the Georgian team, but his left-footed volleyed effort from 15 yards was over the bar!
|
