Spain beat Italy 4-2 on penalties after a goalless Euro 2008 quarterfinal on Sunday to end their shoot-out hoodoo and reach the last four.
Manchester United completed a 3-0 aggregate win over AS Roma on Wednesday to join Liverpool and Chelsea in the Champions League semifinals as the three English teams repeated last season’s success. United will be joined by 2006 winners Barcelona, who beat German side Schalke 04 by a single goal at home to secure a 2-0 aggregate victory.
”Italians lose wars as if they were football matches and football matches as if they were wars”, said Sir Winston Churchill. On matters of war and politics, he was most certainly an expert. The fact is that ever since the fall of the Roman Empire, we have been luckier at calcio than at warfare.
No image available
/ 16 October 2007
Deprived of almost all its major stars, the Italian team to face Bafana Bafana in Siena on Wednesday night will look more like the national B-team line-up than current world champions. Even the inclusion of Paolo Cannavaro in the squad is misleading to the unsuspecting.