Italy vs New Zealand

Jesus.

Italy were fairly poor again in this game, although New Zealand's self congratulating seemed a bit harsh considering their goal was incredibly offside, and that lad hit the post with a cracking effort.

I'm still feeling Italy to get through with a squeaky win against Slovakia; they will then probably jam their way past Holland into a quarter final with Brazil, where they will simply all sit back.

It's simply a very poor Italian side: they haven't got a centre forward or a trequartista worthy of some of the names of the past, and although Pirlo, Montolivio and De Rossi could form a pretty decent midfield, the attack of Camoranesi, Di Natale and Iaquinta simply isn't going to score enough goals. They would be better off with this team than 4-4-2 with Gilardino up front with Iaquinta though; they were terrible.

As for New Zealand, they were plucky, and all credit to them for defending so stoutly, but they shouldn't get their hopes up: their chances of beating Paraguay are very slim, and a draw won't be enough, in all likelihood. I was also a little surprised that Rory Fallon was allowed to elbow quite so many Italians in the face, because I thought that was against the rules of the game.