A crunch match for France and Italy

Not surprisingly perhaps the French media is working itself up into something of a frenzy ahead of Tuesday’s all-important France-Italy match – the last for both countries in the group stages of Euro 2008.

It’s a game that could end up just being a matter of pride and see one, if not both, face elimination from the competition. A win for either side would simply not be good enough if Romania pull off the unexpected and beat the in-form Netherlands in the group’s other match.

Les Bleus will very much have their backs ups against the wall after a humiliating 4-1 loss at the hands (or perhaps better put, the feet) of the Netherlands last week. That defeat came after a much-criticised boring 0-0 draw against Romania in their opening game.

Italy haven’t fared that much better in their campaign so far, taking a 3-1 drubbing from the Dutch and following it up with a spirited but frustrating 1-1 draw with Romania.

Television football pundits here were quick to lay the blame for France’s loss to the Netherlands on the side’s manager, Raymond Domenech, and in particular criticised his decision to leave Karim Benzema on the subs bench. Benzema was the top scorer last season in the country’s domestic league.

And the coach certainly didn’t do himself any favours with supporters or help improve morale among the squad when he insisted that the players hadn’t lived up to their pre-tournament promise and said that some of them had failed to “do what they had to do.”

There have also been persistent rumours over the weekend of friction within the French camp, with the 20-something rising stars such as such as Benzema, Sami Nasri and Lassana Diarra questioning Domenech’s decision to stick with the experienced but out of form “old guard” of 30-somethings (plus) such as Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, Claude Makalele and William Gallas.

Tuesday’s game will be yet another rerun of the 2006 World Cup final in Germany. Since Italy lifted that title on a penalty shoot-out, the two countries have met twice – both times in the qualifying group stages for the Euro 2008 finals.

If there’s any comfort to be drawn from statistics then the French hold the upper hand. In those games they won 3-1 at Stade de France in September 2006 and drew 0-0 a year later in Milan, eventually finishing runners-up to Italy in their group.

And when the two sides met in the Euro 2000 Final in Rotterdam, France ran out winners 2-1 after extra time.

This time around even though the stakes are high – a quarterfinal berth against Spain – the game could well be over for both sides – depending on what happens in the other match.

As they take on Italy in Zurich the French will also be waiting on the result of the game being played at the same time less than 100kms away in the Swiss capital of Berne.

If Romania beat the Netherlands then its curtains for both France and Italy – and the best either team can hope for will to be to bow out of the tournament with a win and their heads held high.

But if Marco van Basten’s Orange Army put on the same sort of performance that has so far set the so-called “Group of Death” and the tournament alight then maybe, just maybe Domenech’s men will be able to squeeze their way through to the quarterfinals.