Egypt – Italy preview: meet the Rossi Boys

Can we?…this is the question in every Egyptian fan’s head right now. After the great display against Brazil, it is now the turn of the world champions, the Azzuri to put ourselves to the test against them; however, things will be a lot tougher. No open defenses, more pressure on the ball holder, more tactical discipline and lethal shots from way outside the box.

Things took a different turn after the match against Brazil; before the match everybody was predicting the number of goals we will concede against Italy and Brazil but now everybody expect and want Shehata to beat Italy but the mission isn’t that simple against, well organized and talented team not to mention the huge pressure on our players because they have to w in or at least sustain the high performance the showed in brazil’s match.

Italy has its own goals from the game, they want to win to secure their place in the semi finals before their match against Brazil and to follow the footsteps of Spain so they won’t be kidding about this match.

Although they are the world champions, this Italy team isn’t the same team that won the world cup with a lot of new names; however, they remain the oldest team in the tournament with an average of 28 years old and they weren’t so convincing especially during the first half of their game against USA, they waited for a magical Rossi moment to equalize and another from the other Rossi, De Rossi, to take the lead, after that goal they improved.

The point is, Italy is beatable if we put a lot of concentration and team work and most importantly good defending especially in set pieces.

Or will this guy prove himself right again.

Italy

When Lippi played with the young talents like Giuseppe Rossi and Recardo Montilivio, the performance improved a lot and the loss turned into a victory while old guards like Toni, Zambrotta, Grosso, Gattuso failed to convince; an exception is Pirlo who restored a lot of his form.

The Italian team is characterized by its diversity; they have tall players who are good in headers which was our main problem like Toni and Iaquinta, they have fighting players like De rossi and Gattuso, they have talented players like Rossi and Pirlo, they have powerful defenders like Chellini and they have the best goalkeeper in the world.

They are a more organized team than Brazil, they have a strong defense, they can control the game and impose their tactical style on opponents and most of all, they have great shooters from outside the box which given El Hadary’s form can cause us problems.

Here is their match highlights

Probable formation: Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso; Gattuso, Pirlo, De Rossi; Rossi; Gilardino, Iaquinta.

Egypt

Entering the match with high spirits, our players need to keep their concentration and more importantly keep the mentality of the underdogs and stay away from the arrogance and over confidence that may lead to unwanted to consequences.

Both Hani said and Wael Gomaa should have worked on their set pieces defending skills by now, if not it will be a disaster because Italy has tall players and excellent free kick takers who can transform set pieces into goals even better than brazil.

Hosni and Shawky must take more defensive chores and watch out from those coming from behind and never leave spaces for anyone to shoot; most probably, Shehata won’t start with Ahmed Eid Abdel Malek and will keep him for the second half or according to how the game goes.

There will be less spaces to dribble so we need to play fast and depend more on the wings to break the Italian defense, heavy man marking is expected to so support from midfield and wings will be needed.

According to how the game goes, Shehata may send in one of his strikers in front of Zidan and Abu Treika to increase attacking efficiency and to create more spaces for Zidan and Abu Treika.

Probable formation:

……………………………..el hadary…………………….
Ahmed fathi……gomaa……hany said………oka……..sayed mmoawad
………….shawky………..ahmed Hassan……..abd Raboh
………………………….abu treika…………………
…………………………Zidan…………………………

The match

It will be a closed game unless someone scores early in the game, if that happens it will be an open game like brazil’s; the team that can impose its style, commit less defensive errors and be more efficient on goals will have the upper hand.

The Italians have great determination and they fight till the last minute, remember Italy – Germany during the world cup, so we need to keep concentration till the last minute.

Prediction: 2-2 (Zidan, Abu Treika)

2OLO YA RAB