Euro 2012 Preview: Italy

29May 2012

EURO2012

Italy have a huge tradition in international football and have a history that is every bit as successful as Germany. They have won the World Cup no fewer than four times in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006. They reached the final in 1970 and also again in 1994 where they agonisingly lost to Brazil in a penalty shoot-out. But what has their record been in the European Championships?

Well it hasn't been as good but they did reach the final in 2000 where they lost to France but on the whole Italy have not done overly well in this tournament. They are grouped in with Spain who they play in the opening game, Croatia and Ireland. An opening defeat to the Spanish would put Italy under immediate pressure and games against the dangerous Croats and the Irish would be far from easy fixtures.

In fact "easy" fixtures simply do not exist in the European Championships and Italy have found it tough in recent fixtures against Ireland who have an Italian manager in Giovanni Trappatoni who understands Italian football all too well. Many people are making Italy the dark horses for this event and while all of the talk is of Spain, Germany and Holland......Italy could be the surprise dark horse of this Euro 2012 tournament. Except that an Italian victory shouldn't come as a surprise at all given the history that they have.