ROSSI LOOKING SHARP, BUT MONTOLIVO AS IRELAND GIVE ITALY DAMN GOOD TEST (0-0)

Italy are getting their preparations all in gear for what will be a pretty tough group. Playing Ireland was obviously to get themselves in order to know what to expect from England. But what they or I did not expect was Ireland were not too shabby. Ireland by the end of the match had THE best chance to win it, but it came off the bar while Sirigu pulled off some nice saves. But bad news, seems that Montolivo is OUT of the World Cup...but in my opinion, it's not that huge of a miss.

You'd obviously want to try and blame a stupid player for going IN during a damn friendly, but this was not the case. I think Riccardo was just unlucky. The challenge was your regular coming-together, and somehow, Montolivo just landed badly or something happened.

That just sucks. Maybe he can hitch a ride to under the bridge in Nigeria and get a miracle worker to help him, if not...he will have to sit this one out. BUT, Montolivo has not really shown his best this season and has depreciated since the days when he was known as the next Pirlo. There are so many other good midfielders in this Italian team that this should really not harm them too much.

It was time for Immobile to show his stuff and although he found things difficult, he showed that sharpness by being able to get past the defence with well-timed runs. He also had a few good chances to give Italy the lead but could not get that cigar. In all, I think he is a VERY useful alternative to Balotelli and Rossi as one should always head into a tournament with a minimum of THREE strikers. With the way he plays, he can go lone-gun or buddy up with Rossi or Super Mario.

Ireland definitely gave Italy a good idea of what to expect from England. Those crosses into the box, the direct and pragmatic style, these are thing that Italy will know England will do, but with a bit more guile with Sturridge, Barkley and Sterling in the team. But with Italy, we always know that they are just getting themselves revved up. Once the whistle blows for the World Cup...no more fun and games...

But at the end of the day, what we saw really was that this team needs their jewel. Without Pirlo, Italy are a good team that can get to the quarters. WITH Pirlo, they are a team that can go all the way. Andrea just gives them that definition in the same way that Zidane did for France. So Prandelli must hope and pray that Pirlo does NOT under ANY circumstance get injured and is in PEAK condition when the party starts in a few weeks.




HH