Current Affairs

Difficult group for Italy with the Netherlands, Romania, and France

Roma 03/12/2007

The Netherlands, Romania and France.  These are the opponents resulting form the draw made at the Kongress Zentrum in Lucerne that Italy will play against in the eliminatory phase of the 2008 UEFA European Championships scheduled in Switzerland Austria from June 7th to the 29th, 2008.  The tournament will be inaugurated by the National Swiss team and the Czech Republic on June 7th (6:00 pm) at the S. Jacob Park in Basil.  The Azzurri will debut against The Netherlands on June 9th in Bern (8:45 pm), before playing against Romania on June 13th, 6:00 pm, in Zurich) and France on June 17nd, at 8:45 pm in Zurich. 
A draw that was not too favorable for Italy that will have to play against three opponents with very good technical skills.   The statistics are not so negative for the Azzurri:  the national Dutch team coached by Marco Van Basten, has not beaten the Azzurri for almost 30 years, and in the qualifying phase it was the team with the lowest number of goals scored among all the teams that advanced to the next phase; the same thing can be said for Romania that in group G came in ahead of the Dutch.  Romania has not beaten Italy since the European qualifications in 2000.  France, in its sixth presence in the European Championships and with the title won in 200 thanks to the golden goal by David Trezeguet, is the other opponent of the Italian team. 
If Italy qualifies, i twill play the quarterfinal match (19.22 June) against the first place or second place team of group D, meaning Greece, Sweden, Spain or Russia.

Here are the group compositions:
Group A: Switzerland, Czech Rep., Portugal, Turkey  (in Switzerland)
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland (in Austria)
Group C: The Netherlands, Italy, Romania, France (in Switzerland)
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia (in Austria)