He didn’t use it too well 
By god.
2 Likes
Congrats to our Italian-Irish friends on an excellent start to the soccer competition.
3 Likes
I’ve never been prouder of our Bob
1 Like
I’m sure Bono will be delighted with your praise for his oul’ fella if he’s looking in here.
They’ve forgotten more about defending than stones or maguire will ever know
1 Like
Italy have this wonderful habit of introducing players into these tournaments that your armchair champions league fan wouldn’t have heard of; fiore in euro 2000, grosso in 06, Chielini dominated Spain in 08, Abate in 2012. I suspect that this squad has a number of these bolters
3 Likes
Can add Eder 2016 to that list.
Fiore was a smashing player, once Trapp came on the scene, the bollox hardly used him. His goal against Belgium in 2000 
1 Like
On the eve of the European Championship, it was frankly strange not to hear Ciro Immobile’s name mentioned with more regularity when listening to the debates about who the favourites are for the tournament’s top scorer crown.
Not too far from the Stadio Olimpico, at his home near Formello, the Lazio striker has a European Golden Shoe that one can imagine him confusing for one of the controllers for his beloved PlayStation. Immobile scored 36 goals to win that accolade in the 2019-20 season, equalling the single-season record in Serie A that went unbroken for more than 60 years until Gonzalo Higuain set a new standard in 2016.
Immobile did not surpass that number this term, afflicted as he was by tendonitis through the spring, but he did somehow still score 20 goals in the league despite hitting the woodwork seven times and missing four penalties. Those goals take his Serie A tally to 155 goals in 260 games. Figures like Immobile’s deserve more respect.
Naturally, the 31-year-old found the back of the net in Italy’s scintillating 3-0 win against Turkey on Friday night. In celebration, he acted out a sketch from a famous Italian comedy with Lorenzo Insigne, jokingly shouting down the camera with the sort of expletive you often hear when an Italian is exasperated. Fans have often shouted exactly the same when watching Immobile play for Italy, asking how someone so prolific for Lazio could not take the same chances for the Azzurri.
Immobile was up front when Italy failed to score in both legs of that fateful play-off against Sweden in November 2017, which ended with them not qualifying for the World Cup for the first time since 1958. He was in the midst of a drought that went on to last two whole years on the international stage. “The weight of not scoring was too great,” Immobile said in relief at finally rediscovering his goalscoring touch against Finland in September 2019. “The fact people were always trying to stir things up weighed on me.”
When Roberto Mancini took charge of the Azzurri in the summer of 2018, he was immediately confronted by a paradox. On the one hand, he could call upon one of the most prolific strikers in the world. On the other, the same striker was puzzlingly ineffective for him.
To begin with, Mancini gave his protege Mario Balotelli the 100th chance of his career. He tested out the lightning-fast miss-aholic Kevin Lasagna as well as the king of headers, his royal highness Leonardo Pavoletti. Forgotten wunderkind Pietro Pellegri also got a call-up, and, briefly, the young and old tandem of Moise Kean and Fabio Quagliarella looked exciting together.
Worryingly for Immobile, Italy clicked for the first time under Mancini in the autumn of 2018 when he opted for a strikerless formation against Ukraine, with Federico Bernardeschi as the false nine. Then, whenever his buddy and room-mate Andrea Belotti got the nod, the flush-cheeked wrecking ball tended to make the most of it.
At no point, however, did Mancini lose his faith in Immobile. His club form could not be ignored, nor could his talent. All he had to do was find a way to put him at ease. Through qualifying, Mancini built the team around the BFF core of Insigne, Marco Verratti and Immobile, all of whom emerged while playing under the chain-smoking “who cares about defending?” coach Zdenek Zeman at Pescara. The familiarity of that trio and Mancini’s attacking approach has unleashed great potential but it’s the Italy boss’s empathetic man-management that has really made the difference.
When Immobile missed chances against Holland in the Nations League in Bergamo, Mancini posted a tweet to reassure him: “You’ll score the winner against Poland.”
It was a time when Italy’s goals were mainly coming from midfielders Stefano Sensi, Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Pellegrini. Once again, the question mark over the striker position loomed large but Mancini stood by Immobile. “He’s played well every time he’s played for us,” he insisted, underlining not only the shift the striker puts in for the team but the 20 league assists he’s laid on for Lazio during Mancini’s time as the national team’s selector-in-chief.
“Unfortunately,” he lamented, “we only meet up now and again, and it gets harder. If we were to play 38 games straight, he’d score 25 goals for Italy.”
Gradually, Italy’s identity and increasingly settled status have helped Immobile and Friday night’s goal against Turkey, his 14th in Azzurro, was also his fourth in his last five appearances for the national side. Immobile would have had a tap-in, too, had Merih Demiral not turned the cross bound for him into his own net for the opener.
It was Immobile’s first goal in a major tournament after peripheral roles at the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Euros, and it won’t be the last. Roma’s flying wing back Leonardo Spinazzola was the man of the match and Domenico Berardi also shone, but the prospect of Immobile scoring as freely as he does for Lazio in this stadium — his stadium — is another reason to believe in this team. “It was a satisfying day,” Immobile said. “We were focused on giving our all and everything just slid right off us.”
It’s time everyone realised Italy don’t have a problem up front. On the contrary — they might have the tournament’s top scorer.
2 Likes
Good I love Roberto. What a man. What an Italian.
1 Like
Thought Wales were outsiders in this group but looking at Turkey last night i think now theyll go through. Looking forward to seeing David Brooks, tidy footballer.
Swiss/Belgium double is 3/1 today. I put a tenner on it. Seems very generous
1 Like
Wales are more than capable of getting a draw off the Swiss, Denmark and Belgium a far safer double IMO
Betway have an enhanced acca on Swiss Denmark and Belgium for 5.5/1 should be 4.5/1
Generally that means it won’t come in. They are rarely wrong
Wales and Switzerland, draw
Denmark -1
Belgium -1
Friend of the forum Karen Duggan on duty today for the early kick off.
1 Like
She’s fantastic at the job.
1 Like
She’s lovely
1 Like
Alongside friend of the forum Peter Collins, who I bumped into in the Wexford Riviera.
1 Like
How long has Kent brockman being managing the Swiss ?