Italy coach Roberto Donadoni has revealed the list of the 25 players which will battle it out against France and Ukraine in the Euro 2008 qualifiers next week. The biggest novelty in the Azzurri squad includes the first International call-up for Cagliari midfielder Pasquale Foggia, a player under the watch of Donadoni for quite some [...]

By the way, in case you're wondering why Gennaro Gattuso and Florent Malouda were so amicable during the Italy-France match, here's why. Ahhh, the power of Nike ads... . . . . . . . . . . Share This

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni has inadvertently revealed that striker Luca Toni will miss out on the game vs France this Saturday. As per his usual custom, Donadoni declared that he would not reveal his plans until the very last moment: "You know very well that all doubts concerning my starting eleven [...]

Who'd have thought? The biggest surprise of the day didn't come from yet another disappointing Azzurri performance (victory aside), but the incredible 1-0 win of Scotland on French soil (courtesy of Everton striker James McFadden). It really can't get any tighter in group B, because this surprising result (coupled with Italy's win in Kiev) now sees [.

•Despite reportedly being outplayed for stretches by Albania, the Azzurrini pulled out a 1-0 away win today on a goal from Robert Acquafresca to remain top of their Euro 2009 qualifying group. Though they didn't play particularly well this week, the U-21s have taken all possible points from their first three matches, and coach Pierluigi Casiraghi can breathe easy for a while as everyone spends their time glaring in the general direction of Roberto Donadoni.

Well, that was a hell of a lot more exciting than the France game. Jesus. So, do we call Dondoni a genius now because he started Antonio Di Natale and the guy scored two goals? Or is he just lucky the team saved his job for another day?

Overall, it was probably a deserved win, if only because Italy did more with their chances and, for the most part, defended awfully well.

Roberto Donadoni, who has spent the last two weeks offering up sacrifices to a slew of gods in an effort to winpowers of miraculous recovery for his rickety crew of defenders, yesterday announced his squad for the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers.

For once, it's hard to find too much to complain about with the team. Apart from Marco Materazzi, all the regulars are there (the semi-injured duo of Cannavaro and Luca Toni, even if they're not fully fit for the France match, will certainly be healthy for the trip to Ukraine), including Daniele De Rossi, whose absence from the Hungary friendly was unsettling to say the least.

It's a slow news day, there's little activity to report except for the pre-game preparations that Italy and France are undergoing, waiting for their big clash on Saturday. So here goes, not in any particular order: Luca Toni is slowly getting back to optimum conditions after his injury, and there's every chance that he will be [...]

A lot of hype, considerable pre-game preparation (both physically, tactically, and psychologically) but on the big day, this clash of World Cup finalist titans for the Euro 2008 qualifiers left a lot to be desired. The 82,000 spectators of San Siro stadium surely expected something more out of this match, which in the end gave both [...]

The Azzurri coach commented on his team's performance in Saturday's 0-0 draw against France, and outlined the objectives for Italy's match in Kiev Wednesday. Roberto Donadoni, who recently turned 44 just today, would have perhaps liked a different birthday party than the single point obtained at San Siro this week-end, although perhaps the best gift came [.

Really, it's not. How do we know this? Why, because Roberto Donadoni himself tells us so for your information, he feels he has the full support of the FIGC, no matter what happens in Kiev tonight. Yeah, and it's always such an encouraging sign when people feel the need to say things like that. (In addition to proclaiming his comfort in the job, Donadoni also "has spoken also about the not easiest relationship with the information organs.

First, the good news: As a result of the draw and win in the recent Euro qualifiers, Italy have climbed two spots to the top of FIFA's world rankings. Woo hoo! (Or, since it's Talk Like a Pirate Day: ARRRRR!)

The new top three are Italy, Argentina and Brazil, who had been top but had enough points expire to drop two spots. The leading trio has a significant point advantage over the rest of the crowd, but Germany and the Netherlands climbed into fourth and fifth respectively as a result of their performances over the past few weeks, while the French fell two spots to sixth thanks to that loss to Scotland.

The good news is that the defense looked surprisingly solid, Fabio Cannavaro seems to have remembered who he is and had a solid game and a spectacular second half (as much as one can defend spectacularly), and Marco Materazzi's tshirt completely confirmed his awesomeness. Plus, a point is better than nothing. The bad news is pretty much everything else, from the growing injury list to Italy's total lack of an attacking threat to the suspension of Rino Gattuso for the Ukraine match.

The Azzurri received a surprise visit at the Milanello training ground today: former Italy international Alessandro Nesta dropped by to say hello. Well, maybe it wasn't such a surprise since Milanello is first and foremost the training ground of AC Milan, and the Rossoneri are just back to training after a 3-day break (all the [...]

Apart from when he sagely announced that it could be "a problem" for Anotoni Di Natale if the striker didn't leave Udinese (Seriously? What, he wouldn't take an actual, productive striker because he wasn't playing in Europe? Give me a break.) for a bigger club, Roberto Donadoni has been quiet lately, just glorying in the fact that no one is calling for him to be fired this minute.