The national teams of Italy and France fell into one qualifying group long before the start of the World Cup, and then no one attached particular importance to this fact. A match as a match is another meeting of large teams, nothing personal. However, the World Cup finals turned the French and Italians into sworn enemies - the “tricolors” will never forgive Italy for the “triumphal” end of Zinedine Zidane's career. As soon as the final passions died away, the progressive community clutched at the calendar. And she found out that France and Italy are already meeting on September 6 - the second day of the qualifying tournament. The best time for a rematch would not have been dreamed by the French even in a drunken dream.
Exactly on Tuesday, the park and the protagonist of the final Marco Materazzi succumbed. The Italian defender finally explained what he said to Zidane on a memorable evening on July 9. It turned out that Materazzi was not hinting at all at all about the Frenchman’s mother, but quite the contrary, at his sister. France roared and began to sharpen knives - it was obvious to everyone that the mood of the national team of Raymond Domenech would be frantic. In the first 20 minutes, the hosts didn’t even make a fuss, but an autopsy - the attacking square of Henri, Malouda, Ribery and Govu fell on the defensive orders of Italy like a four-headed dragon. The poor “shoemakers”, who still have not returned from their honeymoon, were completely taken aback and missed twice as many goals in half time as they did in the entire World Cup. Buffon first struck Govou, and then Henry.
As you know, in France the national championship is already in full swing, while in Italy it has not started yet - in addition to the mood, the French got one more trump card, physical form. With a naked eye, one could see how much the host players were faster than their rivals - the Italians simply did not have time to block the zones. However, Italy would not be Italy if it had not tried to change things. Almost the first standard at the gates of the Coupe ended in a goal against France - one Milan player, Pirlo, completed a serve, and the other, Gilardino, scored. For some reason, the attacker on guard in this episode was Sydney Govu, valued up to now for qualities that are not related to personal guardianship. 2: 1 after the first half.
In the second half, Govu avenged Italy for his embarrassment. Already the midfielder of “Lyon” won the fight in the penalty area of the opponent and not against some Bartsaglia or Simeoli, but against Cannavaro, the best defender of the World Cup. Govu could finally finish off Italy with a hat-trick, but Buffon saved the champions from shame - the “squadra azzurra” lost only 1: 3. As a result, Roberto Donadoni’s team has one point in the piggy bank after two meetings, and the rivals in the group have the strong teams of Ukraine and Scotland, who won their matches against Georgia and Lithuania. The fight promises to be very interesting.
The main sensation of the day occurred in the city of Belfast, where the Northern Ireland team took and won against the Spaniards with a score of 3: 2. Everyone is already accustomed to the fact that Ulster can play 0-0 with someone in the mood, they overcame the victory over England: they say that the Severo-Irish tuned in, threw a “fool” and closed with three locks, putting the mop to its own penalty box. But success in the match against Spain is already something out of the ordinary. Northern Ireland twice lost in the score, but turned the tide of the match and rolled the winning goal. The hero was forward Nathan Healy, who scored all three goals against Casillas.
The German national team had a lot of fun in San Marino, having organized an away training session with barrels in a dwarf state. This is when 11 barrels are put on the field, and with them the team holds a full match. The final score is 13: 0 in favor of the team of Joachim Lev, and this is a new record for the European zone. Lucas Podolski scored four goals, and Miroslav Klose overtook Michael Ballack in the number of goals for the national team - he now has 33 against 32 of the captain. In the same group, the Czech team did not leave a stone unturned by the Slovaks' neighbors - in Bratislava, the guests won 3-0. The national teams of Germany and the Czech Republic are confidently in the lead, and the Germans also provided themselves with a goal difference.
In our qualifying group, England and Israel won yet another victory. Wards of Steve Maclaren strained, but in good faith outplayed Macedonia - the score 1: 0 can already be called "English". Israel had no problems in the match with Andorra and also scored six points. The following matches the Russian team will hold in October against Israel and Estonia. One must win, both of them.
Kirill DEMENTYEV