International Friendlies

MilanMB said:

Portugal - Spain (veetle)

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Lisa said:

Italy 1-1 Romania

Quags goal off a Pirlo corner.

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NIRossoneri said:

hes 170cm tall and 70kgs

Bacary Sagna is 176cm tall and 72 kgs
Yoann Gourcuff is 185cm and 79 kgs

Milner isnt gunna boss those two about.

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MilanMB said:

Pwned

if true that is

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Senatore_M84 said:

I'm aware he's short. So is gattuso, makelele ando theres. Point is Milner is a physical player, much more so than gourcuff or nasri

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NIRossoneri said:

hes an athletic player for sure but i wouldnt call him physical.

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Cesare Prandelli made numerous changes for this friendly in Austria, including the senior Italy debut for Andrea Ranocchia, Federico Balzaretti, Alessandro Diamanti and the 'Oriundo' Cristian Ledesma. Mario Balotelli, Alberto Aquilani and first time captain Giuseppe Rossi also returned.

There were warnings before the game that the crowd would make racist boo noises when Balotelli or Ledesma got the ball and they were immediately evident in a stadium with only 5,000 people in it, among them only 100 who had travelled from Italy. It wasn't entirely clear if the chants were coming from the Italian fans or the Romanian ones.

Diamanti hit an early free kick into the wall, then debutant Ranocchia did well to close down Stancu cleanly outside the box.

In scenes that will worry Inter fans, Cristian Chivu pulled up with a muscular problem and limped off after just 15 minutes. He was replaced by Palermo defender Dorin Goian.

Marica burst down the right past Leonardo Bonucci and pulled back from six yards, but defenders got in the way of the pass in a dangerous move. A weak Balotelli free kick was easy pickings for goalkeeper Pantilimon. The Manchester City striker did better when pouncing on a defensive error to smash his shot just over the bar from distance.

A Torje cross was flicked away before it could reach the head of Marica. Soon after Torje was the first player booked for hacking down Balotelli in a very late and high tackle.

Davide Santon timed his challenge perfectly to stop Marica running clear on goal as Romania broke on the counter from an Italy free kick.

It was only a warning, as Romania took the lead on 33 minutes. Stefano Mauri gave the ball away and the ball was rolled to the D for a wayward Rat shot, but it ricocheted off Bonucci and turned into an assist for Marica to pounce, firing under the bar from seven yards.

Diamanti's cross-shot from the left flank stung the goalkeeper's palms in the first real effort aimed at the Romanian net.

On the stroke of half-time, Goian horribly scuffed his clearance from a corner so Ranocchia nodded wide under pressure.

Balotelli gave a glimpse of what he can do, as he cut in from the left to squeeze between two defenders and hit a fierce low drive that the goalkeeper beat away with some difficulty between his hands and his stomach at the base of the near post.

Prandelli made changes at half-time, as Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Gilardino replaced Ledesma, Diamanti and Rossi. Gilardino had a great chance within 200 seconds, gathering a long ball to hit the angled drive into the goalkeeper's chest.

Moments later Gila hit the back of the net from eight yards on a De Rossi assist from the left flank, but he was flagged offside. Gila also fell soon after in a tussle with his marker, but the referee waved play on.

Fabio Quagliarella and Mattia Cassani came on for Balotelli and Santon, but Romania threatened as Deac skipped past two players down the right to flash the ball across the six-yard box.

Quagliarella attempted an overhead kick that went wide, while Tatarusanu gathered an Aquilani snapshot. Emiliano Viviano comfortably smothered a Tamas free kick.

Bad news for the Azzurri, as substitute De Rossi limped off with what looked to be quite a serious groin strain to make way for Giampaolo Pazzini.

Pirlo's free kick was fingertipped out from under the crossbar. From the resulting corner, Quagliarella got a glancing header at the near post, but it went in off Romanian forward Marica from six yards.

Having equalised, Italy were now pouring forward in the final minutes and Quagliarella hit the side-netting, but at the other end Viviano caught a Florescu snapshot.

Italy: Viviano; Santon (Cassani 60), Ranocchia, Bonucci, Balzaretti; Aquilani, Ledesma (Pirlo 46), Mauri; Diamanti (De Rossi 46) (Pazzini 80); Rossi (Gilardino 46), Balotelli (Quagliarella 60)

Romania: Pantilimon (Tatarusanu 46); Rapa, Tamas, Chivu (Goian 16), Rat; Torje (Tanase 57), Ropotan (Alexa 80), Florescu, Deac (Ilie 90); Stancu, Marica

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Sod-Lod said:

Cesare Prandelli Failed

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Senatore_M84 said:

Rons got a mohawk




hmm i dunno, he puts in more than his share of defensive work. point was they had a lot of 'defensive minded' players v. france who had 1. You'd think they'd do better. I didnt see gourcuff or nasri knocking milner (for ex.) off the ball....

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NIRossoneri said:

i cant remember milner having the ball to be dispossessed of. England dont have many good defensive minded midfielders. If Jack Wilshire had been fit then it might be a different story they need a good passer of the ball in the midfield.

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Sasha said:

Please explain how.

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“We came up against a very aggressive side. In the second half we had more space to move, but the character was great, as we didn’t want to lose and fought to the end,” he said of the 1-1 friendly draw with Romania.

He played four senior debutants from the start – Cristian Ledesma, Andrea Ranocchia, Alessandro Diamanti and Federico Balzaretti.

“There were a few difficulties, especially in terms of character,” confessed the Coach in his post-match interview with RAI.

“Mario Balotelli did very well, but we didn’t have much depth in the first half.”

The friendly match in Austria had very few people in the stands, but there were clearly audible racist chants against Balotelli from the Romanian section.

“I was disappointed and angry to hear those chants. It really makes you want to do something, but we are impotent in this situation.

“I would love to see someone embrace him to confirm the faith and affection in this lad.”

The experiment of using no pure centre-forward so the trequartista role rotated between Diamanti, Balotelli and Giuseppe Rossi did not have much effect.

“We could use this system again in 2011. We’ll see.”

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Senatore_M84 said:

Rons got a mohawk

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MilanMB said:

Nani just screwed a fantastic CR goal

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MilanMB said:

Nani just screwed a fantastic CR goal

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IpnoXXI said:

Aquilani tragedy
Anyone else useful in 2014

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Senatore_M84 said:

Nice goal.

Ron just owned SuperSergi.... truly BEST player in the world.

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Sod-Lod said:

Cesare Prandelli admits “there were a few difficulties, especially in terms of character” with Italy’s debutants.

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Sasha said:

It was a meaningless friendly, Prandelli is still creating his team. I will give him time.

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Sasha said:

It was a meaningless friendly, Prandelli is still creating his team. I will give him time.

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