ITALY’S PRESS ON Friday celebrated the national side’s 2-1 Euro 2012 semi-final victory against Germany and in particular the double by “stratospheric” striker Mario Balotelli.
“A strong Italy and a stratospheric Balotelli sunk Germany and took Italy to seventh heaven,” the Corrierre dello sport said in its online edition, reminding readers that Germany had been favourites to win Thursday’s tie in Warsaw, Poland.
The daily added that the Azzurri had put in a “mind-blowing performance” while Balotelli’s two first-half goals were “splendid”.
Gazzetta.it, in particular, hailed a masterful performance from midfield playmaker and official man of the match Andrea Pirlo, saying that he “directed operations and was, as usual, the lynchpin of the side”.
La Repubblica called the match “a masterpiece”, particularly in the “perfect” first-half “which showed everyone who thought that Balotelli couldn’t play at centre-forward or that (coach Cesare) Prandelli had problems that they were wrong”.
Meanwhile, Poland’s press celebrated the victory of “glorious Italy” against Germany in the semi-final of Euro 2012 in the last match to be played in the capital of the co-hosts.
“Warsaw was lucky. The last match in Poland was the best of all the games in the championship. The Italians, completely transformed by coach Cesare Prandelli, once again displayed some really glorious football,” the daily Rzeczpospolita said.
According to ‘Polska The Times’ “even before the final we can say that Euro 2012 was a great success”.
“Without name plates of the cities near the stadiums, television viewers would not have known the difference between a match played in Lviv (in western Ukraine) or in Gdansk (in norther Poland) or one played in Milan or Barcelona,” it added.
Euro 2012 in Poland “will go down in history as the first big celebration involving virtually all of society since the festival of Solidarity”, the anti-communist union of Lech Walesa that emerged in 1980, said Gazeta Wyborcza.
“If you count on the word of foreign fans, we could be welcoming an extra million tourists this summer because they virtually all said that they want to come back to Poland,” the newspaper added.
Pathetic showing by RTÉ and FAI, both organisations, are heavily funded by us the taxpayers. Pull the plug now Mr Harris!!!
The reason no broadcaster wants to show the games is because they offer very poor entertainment and noboby but the fans of the clubs involved would watch.
The reality is whatever else they broadcast in place of these matches will pull in more viewing figures.
Irish domestic soccer is very unlucky in that it operates in a unique situation in Europe in that it exists in an environment with rugby clubs that are amongst the best on the continent and indiginious games that are hugely popular.
@Stanley Marsh: ouch i would watch it if it was on rte free and i support cork
@Square: Fair enough but would there be enough like you to make a difference?
LOI standard can be painful at times.
Was listening to Newstalk last week and one of the presenters who is an LOI regular was telling how he was at a match the weekend before and was nearly traumatised at how poor the match was.
Hard for LOI to thrive with the best league in the world 300 klms away along with the 4 rugby provinces and hurling.
Irish LoI soccer gets as much support as it deserves. Compared to other of our major sports, the quality, governance and management is appaling. The performance of the national teams of some small countries in Euro 24 was a clear demonstration of how far behind Irish soccer is and that can only be placed at the feet of the Clubs in our National League.
Since the days of Kerr, we have rarely produced a competitive underage national team, despite the numbers claimed to play the game.
Wake up soccer in Ireland. Start properly developing the players and producing winning teams. Then you’ll get support for State funding
@Des Lamont: A bit harsh on the LOI as they’re forced to make do with the little support they have financially from the FAI & gate receipts alone. You do realise it’s extremely difficult for a national footballing association to produce elite world-class players without significant backing from the government, and its citizens preferring to spend £££’s in a foreign country. That’s why Irish clubs are struggling in the coefficient rankings.