Marco Materazzi was surprisingly nice about Zinedine Zidane, but blasted Rafa Benitez. “He thought he knew everything, but was afraid of his own shadow.”
Italy’s Under-21 side paid the price for defensive errors, but dominated the second half and were denied by a goalline clearance in their 3-1 friendly defeat to Spain.
Cesare Prandelli has named his starting XI for Italy’s friendly with France, a 4-3-3 including Marco Verratti, Mario Balotelli and Stephan El Shaarawy.
Stephan El Shaarawy, Davide Santon and Alessandro Florenzi are in the Italy squad to face France in next week’s friendly, but Daniele De Rossi is dropped after his red card.
Cesare Prandelli names his Italy squad to face France this evening and admits he has been “pleasantly surprised” by Stephan El Shaarawy and Fiorentina.
Italy Coach Cesare Prandelli spoke about how “proud” he is to have changed the perception of calcio abroad with Euro 2012 and comments on Marco Verratti’s progress.