Italiener fürchten Skandinavien-Unentschieden

[Djet]

Azzurri fear Scandinavian fix

Alex Del Piero, Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo admit they fear that Denmark and Sweden will play out a high-scoring draw to knock out Italy.

“The international press and especially the Danes have picked on us over the last few days due to Francesco Totti’s spitting incident,” noted Del Piero. “They all talked about a lack of fair play. Now it’ll be interesting to see what their version of fair play is.”

A score-draw of 2-2 or above would automatically qualify both teams and eliminate Italy from the competition, regardless of their result against Bulgaria.

“A 2-2 would be truly a dirty result,” added the suspicious Juve captain, “but I am certain that both teams will go out there looking for the win.”

The rules for Group games in major tournaments were changed after the scandal of 1982, when Austria and Germany played out the only result that would qualify both teams, choosing not to go past the halfway line for 70 minutes of the match.

Now all the final Group ties must be played simultaneously to avoid a similar incident, except in this case Italy’s result is potentially irrelevant.

“I am still confident we’ll go through,” added Del Piero. “Sweden and Denmark can draw 0-0 or 1-1, because that can happen, but a 2-2 is such a strange result that it would mean there was some sort of agreement. It would be undignified and a shameful blight on both nations.”

Andrea Pirlo (pictured) is also concerned that a high-scoring draw will raise major question marks over the two neighbouring nations.

“I have experience at the highest level,” said the Milan man, “and therefore know that to agree a 2-2 draw or higher is very difficult indeed. If it was 0-0 that could qualify them, we’d be much more worried as that’s surely much simpler to play out.”

Some newspapers even asked Pirlo if he was going to call his Rossoneri teammates Jon Dahl Tomasson and Martin Laursen.

“It would be ridiculous for me to do such a thing. They are professionals and already know how to behave.”

But the toughest warning came from Gennaro Gattuso, who will be suspended for Italy’s match with Bulgaria.

“Let’s put about 50 TV cameras on the Sweden-Denmark game to capture it if anything untoward happens,” said the midfield warrior. “If there’s something I can’t stand, it’s all these Swedes and Danes trying to teach us how to play fair, so now I want to see what they’ll come up with.”

Gattuso also harked back to the controversy that followed Italy’s exit from the 2002 World Cup – a tournament that saw five valid goals disallowed for a variety of refereeing errors.

“I think we Italians aren’t too popular nowadays. They say UEFA respect us, but in every tournament recently something strange happens.”

The most reassuring Azzurri voice is Christian Vieri, who missed several great chances to kill off the game against Sweden.

“The Scandinavians have always been a model of civil behaviour and sporting fair play,” said the Inter striker. “I really doubt there will be a fix.”

Football Italia

[Pinturicchio]

Scandinavians deny stitch-up Sunday June 20, 2004

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Sweden and Denmark insist they will not attempt to fix the result of their Group C match to knock Italy out of Euro 2004.

“We are Sweden and always play to win,” claimed former Torino man Erik Edman. “The sneaky ones are Italy, but we always care about fair play and sportsmanship.”

Joint Coach Lars Lagerback also took attack as the best form of defence after reading of the Azzurri’s suspicions.

“Francesco Totti’s spitting incident was an ugly incident and he was rightly punished for it. A fixed result would be equally ugly and it’s impossible for us to play for that 2-2 with Denmark, especially as it’s a rather unusual scoreline. Obviously, nothing is impossible in football and it could end that way, but it certainly wouldn’t be planned.”

Former Roma Coach Nils Liedholm rushed to the defence of his fellow countrymen.

“Sweden will play for the victory until the final whistle,” exclaimed The Baron. “It is better to lose a match and be eliminated rather than to lose face. We are Swedish.”

A 2-2 draw would enable both teams to qualify at the expense of the Azzurri, raising fears the two neighbouring nations will help each other.

“Sure we will fix the match with Sweden,” joked Denmark tactician Morten Olsen. “We are in a European Championship and it’s obvious we’ll play to win, like always.”

Serie A star Martin Jorgensen also tried to allay the fears of his club comrades ahead of Tuesday’s tense showdown.

“The draw between Italy and Sweden couldn’t have been a worse result for us,” maintained the Udinese man. “With a victory for either side, all we’d have needed was a draw to progress. Now we must defeat the Swedes to be sure we’ll go through.”

However, Jorgensen (pictured) was also quoted as saying, “If a draw is needed, then we won’t go all out to damage each other.”

All the reassurances in the world won’t calm FIGC President Franco Carraro’s worries and he is taking steps to ensure the contest is clean.

“I am counting on the fair play of Denmark and Sweden,” said the Federation chief. “This match will be watched by every television station in the world and UEFA will also be keeping a close eye on the situation. Passage to the Quarter-Finals is in our hands.”

channel4.com

[Gast The lonely marksman]

[LowFive]

hehehe

Ich denke nicht, dass Dänemark - Schweden 2-2 ausgehen wird,

dass würden sie sich nie trauen, weil dann von allen Seiten

Kritik und Verdächtigungen kommen würd....

(Deswegen: mein Tipp: 3-3 )

[Manegarm]

Schön langsam wirds richtig ärgerlich.

In der Nachbesprechung nach Swe-Ita hier im ASB ist auch hauptsächlich davon geredet worden, wie es sich die Skandinavier richten werden etc., etc. und jetzt kommen auch noch die italienischen Spieler daher (wobei ich ja nicht weiß, in wie fern, dass von den italienischen Medien vorangetrieben wird...). Und gerade Del Piero... Der versteht ja selbst nicht, wieso er schon wieder zu einer Endrunde einberufen wurde, der weiß genauso gut wie die meisten, die sich mit dem italienischen Fußball beschäftigen, dass es heuer weit bessere gab. Und wenn er den Ball nicht neben das Tor hebt, sondern in einfach rein macht stehts 2-0 und das hätten die Schweden nicht umdrehen können.

Gattuso (der eine tolle Partie spielte und mir von seinem Spielstil sehr gut gefällt) fühlt sich verfolgt von skandinavischen Kameras.

Entweder liegen da die Nerven schon komplett blank oder man muss den Herren weiter erklären, was man unter Fairplay versteht. Fairplay bedeutet nämlich auch ein fairer Verlierer zu sein. Die Italiener hatten jetzt zweimal die Chance, aber weder gegen Dänemark noch gegen die Schweden gewonnen. Niemand anders als die Italiener selbst sind schuld, dass sie scheinbar noch immer nicht wissen, dass ein Turnier nicht erst ab der KO-Phase los geht.

Außerdem müssen sie ja selbst erst gegen die Bulgaren gewinnen, was sicher nicht so leicht wird.

naja, das musste jetzt einfach mal raus...

und aus.

Manegarm