Old foes scrap for their Euro lives
ZURICH, Switzerland: France goes into its do-or-die clash with Italy here on Tuesday beset by doubt, reports of internal strife and player fatigue.
The backdrop to this latest instalment of the rivalry between the old foes could not be more different to their last meeting in a major finals.
Back in 2006 Italy overcame France at Berlin's majestic Olympic stadium to be crowned champion of the world.
Here on Tuesday at Euro 2008 those two same soccer superpowers roll up their sleeves in a back alley scrap for a route out of Group C on the heels of already qualified Holland.
The math is "relatively" straighforward.
Wide-margin defeats to the Dutch (3-0 and 4-1 respectively) and 1-1 and 0-0 draws with Romania left Italy and France requiring a win and Romania to draw or lose to Holland.
Given their inferior goal difference that is the only way France can make it.
Italy would still have a chance if it draws with France, and Romania lose, leaving them both with two points.
Here the permutations require the services of a Mensa brain, but in a nutshell Italy would go through if it produces a score draw with France and Romania loses.
The reward is a quarterfinal date with Group D winner Spain in Vienna next Sunday.
France's keeper Gregory Coupet, reeling from France's heaviest defeat in almost three decades against the Dutch, summed up the somber mood in Les Bleus' camp.
"Today we've got our heads down," he said at the team's training headquarters in Chatel-Saint-Denis on Sunday.
"There's tiredness, questions being asked ... we need time to breathe and to prepare quickly for Italy."
France, whose famed defense, the traditional bedrock of Raymond Domenech's side, was embarrassingly torn apart by Holland, could welcome back talismanic captain Patrick Vieira who missed the opening two games with a left thigh problem.
"I don't know if he'll be playing, but he wants to, he's really, really hot, at 100 percent, in the head but we don't know whether his thigh is at 100 percent.
"He's intelligent, if he plays it's because he can play," reported France midfielder Franck Ribery.
Domenech has a real tactical conundrum on his hands as he's already tried 4-4-2 and 4-3-2-1 with different players - while his opposite number Roberto Donadoni made no fewer than five changes for the Azzurri's second game against Romania.
Italy would already be down and out if it hadn't been for keeper Gianluigi Buffon's heroics in saving a late penalty from Adrian Mutu.
"This is the match of our lives," said the Italian keeper.
"Like ourselves, France will be surprised only to have mustered one point after two matches. But it seems that Italy are on better form as we have come off a good match."
Both sides know each other as well as aged aunts, with France coming out on top when they met in the Euro 2000 final only for Italy to gain handsome compensation in the 2006 World Cup.
They were also drawn together in qualifying for this competition.
Thierry Henry, who was deployed as a lone striker in that game, reflecting on the monumental task lying ahead in Zurich, said: "Now we know that we have to beat Italy and hope for good news from the other match. It's do-able but it's going to be a knife-edge game with the Italians."
"We still have a possibility of qualifying, we're not defeated.
"This is not the first time we've been in this situation and I hope once more we can lift our heads and get out of it."
AFP
(China Daily 06/17/2008 page22)
