Italia 2 - Lithuania 0

I’ll say right off I wasn’t able to watch the game, computer issues and whatnot so I can’t really go into detail. If anyone missed the reports, the story was Fabio Quagliarella, who put two perfect shots into the back of the net from outside the penalty box in his first start for Italia. The first was a left-footed laser, which was hit with huge power and didn’t descend until it hit the back of the net. The second was outside the right corner of the box and was placed perfectly back into the net with his right foot. The two strikes really cemented the fact that Quagliarella is one of the future stars of the Azzurri, considering both were vastly different shots with two different feet. Hopefully he is rewarded for his efforts and will start up front against France in September. He could be the Italian answer to the spectacular displays of Samir Nasri.

As for the rest of the game, the other stories were the failures of Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi. Di Natale missed quite a few scoring chances up top, described as ’sitters,’ and has likely lost his place in the squad upon the return of Totti and Toni. De Rossi made some defensive errors and allowed Lithuania a couple of chances, but he has too much class too be worried about being overtaken on the roster (though a starting spot under the Milan homer Donadoni is unlikely).

The names likely to find themselves sitting at home on September 8th are Rocchi, Di Natale, Lucarelli, Gamerbini, Pasqual and likely one of the Ambrosini/Diana duo. Some of the big boys are on the way back and not soon enough. I, for one, am drooling at the possibility of Totti, Toni and Quagliarella up top against France (splitting Totti out wide and Toni in the middle). Absolutely lethal, and a huge improvement for all those balls flying through the box up high. Now that this France game is coming up, I think we’ll have plenty of time to speculate on the true rematch of the Berlin final. The September ‘06 game might count in the standings, but the Azzurri team that took the pitch that day was a shadow of the team that won the Cup in Germany, and deservedly so. The A squad will return in a few months and Les Bleus won’t know what hit ‘em.

The other big winners of the day were Sampdoria and Udinese, co-owners of Fabio Quagliarella, who just saw Fabio’s price absolutely skyrocket. More so Udinese, who sold him because they didn’t think he was up to their standards. That’s what you would call hitting the lottery.