The first clash between 2 of the favourites in Euro 2008 didn’t dissapoint as the world cup winners met the dutch masters in the so called group of death. The game was by far the best encounter in the championships so far, not only producing the most goals but also the biggest shock as Holland beat Italy for the first time since 1978. Controversy surrounded the first Dutch goal as Van Nistelrooy appeared to be a good yard offside but UEFA have moved quickly to back up the officials who actually got the decision right:

“The goal was correctly awarded by the referee team. I think there’s a lack of understanding among the general football public, and I think it’s understandable because this was an unusual situation. The player was not offside, because, in addition to the Italian goalkeeper, there was another Italian player in front of the goalscorer. Even though that other Italian player at the time had actually fallen off the pitch, his position was still relevant for the purposes of the offside law.”

Italy could be forgiven for being unaware of the law but not for their lack of pace, width and desire in the first half of this game. The one thing you can always rely on an Italian side to produce is tight defending but even that desserted them yesterday as Materazzi and Barzagli were run ragged by the incisive passing and quality runs of the Holland side. This was emphasised by the second goal which saw both Van Bronckhorst and Kuyt run the entire length of the field untracked to combine to set up Sneijder who dinked the ball over Buffon into the desserted goal. The Italians started the second half better but still lacked invention and creativity despite bringing on Del Piero and Cassano and although they made chances to get back in the game the Dutch created enough opportunities to have scored 6 or 7 goals and duly wrapped the game up with a 3rd from Van Bronckhorst who once again broke from his own box and combined with Kuyt to head home.

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