Euro 2012: Grades for Italian National Team in Quarterfinal vs. England

Sunday's quarterfinal matchup between Italy and England probably took several years off the lives of most fans of the Italian National Team.  As the missed chances racked up, the anxiety became unbearable. Fans wondered if the match would head to penalties, as it had four years ago at this stage after a goalless draw against Spain.

Never before have I seen a team at the club or international level dominate an opponent so thoroughly and not score a goal.  By rights, the Italians should have won this match 5-0.

That said, they are moving on to the semifinals at the Euros for the first time since their runner-up finish in 2000.  Who gave the Italians their best performances as they moved through?  Let's look at the players on the field one by one.

Gianluigi Buffon

Grade: A+

If there are any lingering doubts about Gianluigi Buffon being the best goalkeeper in the world, this match should expel them.

Buffon was called into action early: Italy's defense uncharacteristically broke down in the fifth minute when Glen Johnson was found in the box and fired a shot point-blank on Buffon's goal.  Buffon was falling backward but stabbed out with one hand to block the shot and then—most importantly—corralled the rebound as English players rushed in to pounce.

The rest of the match was a relative cruise.  A 13th minute punch of a cross went straight to England's Scott Parker, who shot wide, and a 77th minute lofted free kick by Steven Gerrard went straight through everyone and was easily gathered by the Italian keeper.

In extra time, he was only pressed into action in the 98th minute when he came out to claim a long cross that didn't look like it was threatening anyone.

In the shootout, he shone.  He guessed right on Gerrard's first kick, with the low kick slipping in inches beyond his fingers.  On England's fourth and final kick, Buffon faced down Ashley Cole—one of the few English players with a very good record in penalty shootouts—and stopped his shot low and to the keeper's left.  It was a fantastic save that further burnished the superkeeper's legend.

Facing down Germany in the semifinals with a 48-hour disadvantage in rest time after an extra-time game, Italy is going to have to rely on Buffon heavily if they want a chance to win.  He will have to harken back to the form he had in Italy's semifinal win in the 2006 World Cup for the Azzurri to play for their first European title since 1968.

Ignazio Abate

Grade: B+

You would be forgiven for mistaking Ignazio Abate for a winger yesterday.  After not making a huge impact in the first half, when the Italian attack seemed focused on the left side of the field, Abate set up camp on the right wing in the second half.  He peppered the English box with crosses and played very well defensively.

Of particular note is a great track-back play he made on Wayne Rooney in the 49th minute after a Claudio Marchisio giveaway in the Italian half.  His marauding down the flank nullified Ashley Young as an offensive force for England, keeping him bottled up in the England's defensive third for almost all of the match.

He was substituted in stoppage time of regulation.  It was an interesting move by Prandelli, who declined to insert a fresh striker in to try and unzip a tired English defense and instead had inserted two midfielders onto the field and removed one of his strikers.  

Abate didn't look like he was particularly tired, but his removal might have had something to do with the clash of heads between him and Young several minutes earlier.

It will be interesting to see if he's able to go against Germany considering the fact that his replacement, Christian Maggio, was booked for a soft foul and will be suspended for the match.

Andrea Barzagli

Grade: A

Andrea Barzagli had a great match.  He was constantly the one who was snuffing out the odd English counterattack.  He was great in the air when the English were able to whip a ball into the box from the wings, and he made a great defensive play against Rooney in the 88th minute as the Manchester United striker looked for a late shocker.

On the whole, his day was about putting out fires on the counter and resetting the attack after receiving back passes if the Italians couldn't find their way through and had to backtrack.  England had so little possession yesterday that he really didn't have all that much to do.

He was booked in the 82nd minute on a terrible call by referee Pedro Proenca, but it didn't matter as he came into the match without a card, and the slate is wiped clean before the semifinal.

Leonardo Bonucci

Grade: A

Like Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci's main job was putting out the occasional fire from an English counterattack and helping to reset the Italian attack.

He beat out Rooney for a header in the 12th minute during England's only period of sustained attack early on in the match.  In the 43rd, England was able to run with the ball after a botched Italian free kick, but Bonucci cleared up the danger before they could trouble Buffon.

In extra time Bonucci hung back, not really challenged by much.  He did, however, display a facet of his game that most center-backs don't possess—his prowess with the long ball.  Only Andrea Pirlo completed more long passes for Juventus this season, and in the 96th minute Bonucci found Alessandro Diamanti with a great pass.  Diamanti had good options, but his cross was blocked before it could make it into the box.

Bonucci will have a much stiffer test against Germany, but so far he has acquitted himself well in the wake of the injury to Giorgio Chiellini.

Federico Balzaretti

Grade: B+

After a slow start to the match, Federico Balzaretti turned into a terror for England down the Italian left.  Throughout the first half, it seemed like the Italians were concentrating on building their attack through his side.  He peppered the box with crosses and frequently slipped the ball through to Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli to move the attack back to the center.

He played well defensively, winning a header in the six-yard box early on in the match when England was pressing forward and before the Azzurri were able to seize the game by the scruff of the neck.

As the game progressed into the second half, Italy's attack switched from the left to the right through Abate and Maggio, and Balzaretti's effect on the game lessened.  He did get back into it in the 113th minute when he crossed low to Diamanti, but the subsequent shot went well wide.

Also important is that Balzaretti avoided a second booking in the tournament and will now have a clean slate come the semis on Thursday.

Andrea Pirlo

Grade: A+

No words can adequately describe how well Andrea Pirlo played in this match.

In the battle between Pirlo and Gerrard to control the midfield, l'architetto absolutely dominated.  In the early going, the English pressed him and were able to get the better of the first 15 minutes or so of the match, but that pressure mysteriously disappeared after about 20 minutes. Then, the dominance began.

There were times when Pirlo would have four or five yards of space in all directions in which to operate, and operate he did.  In the 25th minute he found Balotelli with a perfectly weighted long ball, but the young striker was unable to convert the chance with Joe Hart out of position.  Pirlo just missed Balotelli with a similar ball in the 53rd minute.  

The long ball over the top seemed to be his weapon of choice yesterday, but as the game wore on and his teammates tired, he started overshooting them.  He also took several shots from long range, but most of them were blocked by the outer layer of the English defense.

Pirlo even played well on the rare occasion he was forced to play defense.  At the very start of the second half, Scott Parker was able to find Rooney in the box, but the star striker couldn't control the ball and Pirlo pounced, gaining possession and starting the ball's journey the other way.  In the 87th minute, he threw himself in front of a shot by Andy Carroll, keeping the ball away from the Italian net.

But he saved his piece de resistance for the shootout.  He had been suspended for the quarterfinal due to yellow card accumulation four years ago, and so he took no part in the shootout against Spain.  He made up for that in spades in this one.

Taking Italy's third penalty with his team down 2-1 following Riccardo Montolivo's miss, Pirlo took the cheekiest shot imaginable—a soft chip straight down the middle of the goal.  Hart dove to his right, and the ball floated into the net.  

It takes supreme confidence to take a shot like that in a shootout—much less when your team is trailing.

Going down the middle is supposed to be one of the cardinal sins of penalty taking, but Pirlo has now done so twice in major international shootouts—in this game and when he started off the shootout for Italy in the 2006 World Cup final against France.  It was a marvelous cap on an absolutely fantastic evening for the fulcrum of Italy's game.

Claudio Marchisio

Grade: B

Claudio Marchisio was one of the few Italians that didn't play exceptional soccer yesterday.  Like in the game against Ireland, his impact was very limited.

He did have moments, though.  It was his feed in the third minute that produced Daniele De Rossi's ringing shot off the post that signaled just how interesting this game would be.  In the 48th minute he again linked up with De Rossi, heading a cleared corner to the midfielder mere yards from goal, only for him to shoot wide.  

He supplied Antonio Nocerino with a fantastic ball right at the death in the 89th minute, but Glen Johnson made a fantastic block to keep the Italians off the scoresheet.  He also had two shots wide in the late stages but wasn't much involved in the proceedings in extra time.

He played some good defense when the Italians deigned to give the ball to the English for any extended period of time.  

Of particular note was a sequence in the 40th minute when Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney were threatening down the right wing.  Marchisio ran back to reinforce the barricades for Abate, who was able to use the extra coverage to end the threat.  

He did, however, commit a bad giveaway in the 49th minute that resulted in a quick English counter that had to be snuffed out by Abate.

It wasn't a terrible performance, but he'll need to step up in a big way if Italy is to make noise against the Germans.

Daniele De Rossi

Grade: B

Yeah, that picture pretty much sums up Daniele De Rossi's night.

Considering his great performances in the group stage, this match was a major disappointment for the Azzurri veteran.  He had several chances to open the scoring for the Italians.  

The first was in the third minute, when he took a pass from Marchisio and unleashed a powerful shot from long range that smashed into the inside of the post and rebounded out. 

The second was a 48th minute corner, when Marchisio headed the ball back towards goal after it had been cleared and found De Rossi onside.  He misjudged how much time he had and took a quick shot with his left foot when he could have easily taken a touch and put it on his stronger right foot.  The shot was well wide from point-blank range.

In the 52nd minute, he gathered a cleared-out cross from Abate and unleashed a long shot from the left side that forced a save from Joe Hart and resulted in a scramble for the rebound that resulted in two follow-up shots—one was saved and one was missed.

He played well on defense, using his physical play to keep the English off the ball for long periods.  He also made a good sliding tackle on Ashley Young in the 64th minute as the young Englishman was making his way upfield on a counterattack.

I was somewhat surprised that Prandelli withdrew him in the 80th minute in favor of Antonio Nocerino.  De Rossi is not often taken off, so he must have either been gassed or suffering an injury that no one could see.  

It could also have been a card-saving measure—a booking in this game would have caused him to miss the semis—but that doesn't quite make sense with the game in the balance.  

Unless he is hurt, he'll start against Germany.  If Abate can't go due to the knock to the head he took, he may end up the middle of Prandelli's new 3-5-2 again with Maggio suspended.

Riccardo Montolivo

Grade: C+

As with De Rossi, this picture is emblematic of Riccardo Montolivo's night.

He had a few positives, like a chip through the middle in the 32nd minute that Mario Balotelli turned into an acrobatic shot that went straight at Joe Hart.

But more often, Montolivo's feet were where Italy's attacks went to die.  He gave a lot of balls away and took a few long shots that went well wide.  In the 52nd minute, after Balotelli's followup to Daniele De Rossi's long shot was saved, Montolivo got the ball at point blank range and put it over the crossbar.  

Just as in his substitute appearance against Croatia, Montolivo failed to make much impact at all.

Capping off a bad night was a terrible miss in the shootout—despite a good record in them in club competitions.  Fortunately, the miss was cancelled out when Ashley Young's shot hit the bar three kickers later, but in a shootout you have to hit the target.  Montolivo's shot whistled by the left post and put his teammates in a precarious position that they were fortunately able to overcome.

Usually a favorite of Prandelli, his former Fiorentina coach, Montolivo apparently was starting due to an injury to Thiago Motta, who has been favored as a starting player in this tournament.  Montolivo did little to justify his staying in the lineup against Germany.  

Either Motta will come back from his knock, or someone like Alessandro Diamanti, who played very well in this game, will take his place.

Mario Balotelli

Grade: B-

Unfortunately for Italy, Mario wasn't very super yesterday.

Balotelli had numerous chances in this match and spurned every one of them.  His best chance was in the 25th minute, when Pirlo found him with a beautiful long ball over the top.  Balotelli's Manchester City teammate Joe Hart was well out of position, and Balotelli could have taken a first-time chip over the keeper's head to open the scoring.  

Unfortunately, Balotelli had his head down on the ball as he gathered it.  It's probably harsh to criticize a man for focusing on controlling the ball, but if he had just lifted his head for a second, he would have been able to take the shot.  Instead, he held on to it for just too long, and John Terry was able to tackle the ball away from him.

Seven minutes later, he did well to get the ball towards the goal on a chip from Montolivo.  He put the ball right at Hart, but the degree of difficulty on the shot was high enough that it isn't a scold-worthy moment.  

In the 43rd minute, he hit a swerving shot from range that was high, but not by much.  In the second half, he chested down a ball in the box and then bicycle-kicked it just over the bar.  In the 52nd minute, he pounced on a rebound when Hart saved De Rossi's long shot, but Hart was able to recover and save his shot as well.

He had a Jekyll-and-Hyde extra-time period.  In the 97th minute, he hit a great flick that just missed Alessandro Diamanti.  But in the 114th minute, he took a direct free kick and sent it way, way over the bar.

He had a lot of chances tonight but didn't take any of them.  He kept his cool, which was great, as his yellow card is now expunged.  Still, if he doesn't find his killer instinct soon, Italy's missed chances will end up getting them bounced from this tournament.

His grade from me would have been lower had he not stepped up first in the shootout and gotten Italy off to a good start by beating Hart—who had guessed correctly—low to the left.

Antonio Cassano

Grade: B

Cassano has been playing very, very well this tournament, but while Andrea Pirlo had a lot of room to operate in the midfield, the English were packed in tight and didn't give Cassano a lot of room in the attacking third to do his thing.  

He was forced to shoot from long range most of the time he looked to create, and his shots got closer as the game wore on, culminating in a 38th minute shot that Hart saved.

He faded as the game wore on, as a man still recovering from heart surgery is wont to do, and was withdrawn for Diamanti in the 78th minute.  He just didn't make the same off-ball runs that caused havoc in the attacking third during the group stage, nor did he create around the edges of the box in the same way he did in earlier games.  

He'll have to step things up against Germany if Italy is to have a chance to win.

Alessandro Diamanti

Grade: A

I was unimpressed with Diamanti when he came on against Ireland, less for his performance than for the tactics involved in his introduction.  I felt that his introduction at the expense of a striker made the Italians less aggressive and allowed the Irish to press the Italians until late when Balotelli scored the goal that put the game out of reach.

When Diamanti was again put on for Cassano rather than a striker like Antonio Di Natale or Sebastian Giovinco, I was worried that England would likewise press forward in the absence of a striker up top.  This time, I was wrong.

Three minutes after coming on in the 78th minute, he took a hard shot that found the target but was saved by Joe Hart.  He continually had the ball at his feet throughout the rest of the match.

In fact, he almost won the game without even meaning it in the 101st minute, when his cross intended for Balotelli drifted over the striker and past Hart, only to hit the same post that denied De Rossi in the opening minutes of the match.

In the 115th minute, he hit a beautiful cross that Antonio Nocerino headed into the net, but the AC Milan man was a fraction offside and the goal was disallowed.

Interestingly, Diamanti was allowed to take several set pieces with his left foot, including at least two corners and a free kick on the wing.  These are usually the exclusive property of Andrea Pirlo, but these pieces were apparently better for the left-footed player to take.

The Bologna man was given the ultimate responsibility in the shootout, sent to the spot for Italy's fifth kick knowing that if he made it the game would be over.  He took a soft shot to the left side that sent Hart the wrong way, sealing the win and putting Italy into the semifinals for the first time since 2000.

Antonio Nocerino

Grade: B+

Nocerino came on for De Rossi in the 80th minute and had a couple of fantastic opportunities to win the game for Italy late on.  In the 89th minute, Marchisio found him with a great lofted ball in the center of the box, but England's Glen Johnson was able to disrupt what would have been an easy goal for the AC Milan man.

In the 115th, Diamanti found him with a great cross that he headed into the roof of the net, but he was offside by literally the length of his leg.

He took the fourth penalty for Italy, tasked with keeping parity in the shootout after Ashley Young's miss evened the score of the shootout at two.  It was a good shot, soft to the right while sending Joe Hart the other way.

Christian Maggio

Grade: B

Maggio came on for Abate in stoppage time of regulation and continued where his predecessor left off in marauding up the right wing.  

Shortly after the start of extra time, he made a great effort to keep a ball in play and allow an Italian attack to continue.  In the 109th minute, he did well to gain a free kick in a dangerous spot on the wing and had a shot blocked in the 113th minute after being fed by Diamanti.

A minute later, his cross into the box got through the England defense and hit Balotelli in the foot, but bounced away too quickly for him to react.

What probably ruined an otherwise good day was the fact that Maggio was booked in the 94th minute on a really terrible call.  His tackle wasn't even a foul, let alone deserving of a booking, but the card means the Napoli man will miss the semifinal against Germany.  

Depending on the fitness of Abate, Italy may be forced to play a three-man defense against the Germans on Thursday without Maggio to cover the right side.