The Italian football team has always been one of the toughest opponents to face, especially scoring goals against them. The Republic of Ireland found this out in Rome in 1990 as we went out of the competiton to the hosts. Four years later in USA 94 we got our own back as Ray Houghton scored a glorious chip to send the Irish wild. We still had a tough night against the Italians and if it wan't for Paul McGrath and a plucky Irish back line Italy could have won the game easily.
Fast forward 15 years and the Italy of today seems a pale shadow of its former self. They lost to Egypt 1-0 last week in the Confederations Cup, and yesterday were consigned to a footballing lesson against Brazil to knock them out of the competition. The defending in last nights encounter was so far from Italian that you had to look twice to see if you were watching another team.
Brazil scored twice through the brilliant Luis Fabiano as he tore the Italian defence to shreds. Andrea Dossena was shown up to be a poor defender as he was harried into a mistake that led to an own goal. At 3-0 up Brazil had won this match before half-time.
Eight of this side involved in the World Cup final three years ago with the possible exception of Gigi Buggon and Daniele De Rossi. Cannavaro is in decline with Grosso and Zambrotta this Italian defence is looking old. Chiellini is meant to be the future for this defence but looked far from convincing.
By the time the Republic of Ireland face Italy at Croke Park there may be new faces in the set up. Italy may be in decline but if we are to try and inflict a defeat on them we will still need to play top of our game. These recent results still give us hope that we are not facing a world class side any longer.
Fast forward 15 years and the Italy of today seems a pale shadow of its former self. They lost to Egypt 1-0 last week in the Confederations Cup, and yesterday were consigned to a footballing lesson against Brazil to knock them out of the competition. The defending in last nights encounter was so far from Italian that you had to look twice to see if you were watching another team.
Brazil scored twice through the brilliant Luis Fabiano as he tore the Italian defence to shreds. Andrea Dossena was shown up to be a poor defender as he was harried into a mistake that led to an own goal. At 3-0 up Brazil had won this match before half-time.
Eight of this side involved in the World Cup final three years ago with the possible exception of Gigi Buggon and Daniele De Rossi. Cannavaro is in decline with Grosso and Zambrotta this Italian defence is looking old. Chiellini is meant to be the future for this defence but looked far from convincing.
By the time the Republic of Ireland face Italy at Croke Park there may be new faces in the set up. Italy may be in decline but if we are to try and inflict a defeat on them we will still need to play top of our game. These recent results still give us hope that we are not facing a world class side any longer.