Adios Italia!

I don’t think there should be any complaint from Italy about the way they were knocked out of the Euro 2008. Spain’s qualification is all well deserved. Maybe the way my favourite team was eliminated was the most dignified, given their false start to the tournament, the way they scraped through the group and the absence of Cannavaro, Barzagli, Pirlo and Gattuso.

There are a lot of reasons to which one can attribute the failure. But I will focus on one nice surprise that came out of the game. His name is Giorgio Chiellini. His performances reminded me of Cannavaro’s performances during Germany 2006. If Chiellini was the highlight of the Italian squad, Luca Toni was the biggest disappointment. His presence on the pitch conditioned the players to play for him, rather than for the squad.

Any way, honours go to Spain, who will now meet Russia in the semi finals. I doubt that Spain will have a straightforward match as they had in their opening match, when they beat Russia 4-1.

It’s hard to say which team is the favourite to win the cup now. All the favourites are out with the exception of Spain. Russia and Turkey have shown that they are there too, and Germany?

We’ll know in a week.