Group F Discussion - Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia

[Guest Kamy100]

All Group F discussion in here.

[67splitscreen]

Paraguay seem ahead of the race, their starting 11 is believed to be.

Justo Villar

Aureliano Torres - Carlos Bonet - Dario Veron - Paulo Da Silva - Claudio Morel Rodriguez

Enrique Vera - Victor Caceres - Cristian Riveros

Roque Santa Cruz - Lucas Barrios

My link

[roversfan99]

No Cardozo? But hes there best player

[tcj_jones]

What's the situation with Ryan Nelsen? Is he fit and available for the Kiwis?

[Foxxx]

He is fit & well and will lead us to hopefully a new record points total in a World Cup!! (Kinda easy to beat 0 lol).

Wed night NZ time, we have a practice game v Chile, what I dont think he will play much in.

We will stick with the 3-4-3 that got us this far im sure, biggest selection drama is who to play besides Nelsen in defence, the last 2 warm up games the new boys, Tommy Smith (Ipswich Town) & Winston Reid (FC Midtjylland) have played well. Hopefully Tim Brown (Wellington Phoenix) will have recovered from his shoulder surgery to be fit enough, our midfield is much better with him there.

[Roberto Policano]

Italy's starting 11 will be.

Buffon - Zambrotta - Cannavaro - Chiellini - Criscito - Pepe - Gattuso(If Pirlo not fit) - De Rossi - Camoranesi - Di Natale - Gilardino.

Not the greatest Italian side in the world,but on their day can beat anyone,Plus there is no pressure on them.

Obviously the winner of the Paraguay v Italy game will win the group,with New Zealand getting hammered in all 3 games.

Nelson Valdez usually starts upfront for Paraguay,and Cardozo only very rarely starts a game,which seems crazy under current form.Cruz will probably start along side Valdez in their first game against Italy.

Personally i would go with the 2 inform guys and start with Lucas Barrios and Cardozo upfront.

[67splitscreen]

Italy's starting 11 will be.

Buffon - Zambrotta - Cannavaro - Chiellini - Criscito - Pepe - Gattuso(If Pirlo not fit) - De Rossi - Camoranesi - Di Natale - Gilardino.

Not the greatest Italian side in the world,but on their day can beat anyone,Plus there is no pressure on them.

Obviously the winner of the Paraguay v Italy game will win the group,with New Zealand getting hammered in all 3 games.

Nelson Valdez usually starts upfront for Paraguay,and Cardozo only very rarely starts a game,which seems crazy under current form.Cruz will probably start along side Valdez in their first game against Italy.

Personally i would go with the 2 inform guys and start with Lucas Barrios and Cardozo upfront.

Barrios starting (3 in 3) is a defo iIMO.

[frosty]

Italy's starting 11 will be.

Buffon - Zambrotta - Cannavaro - Chiellini - Criscito - Pepe - Gattuso(If Pirlo not fit) - De Rossi - Camoranesi - Di Natale - Gilardino.

I think Marchisio would be a better option than Gattuso - his best days are behind him and Marchisio is more similar to Pirlo. And possibly Pazzini over Gilardino as he ended the season in better form, although they are both pretty similar.

[Roberto Policano]

I think Marchisio would be a better option than Gattuso - his best days are behind him and Marchisio is more similar to Pirlo. And possibly Pazzini over Gilardino as he ended the season in better form, although they are both pretty similar.

My side would be Buffon - Cassani - Chiellini - Bonucci - Criscito - De Rossi - Palombo - Pirlo - Cassano - Rossi - Di Natale in a 4-3-1-2 with Cassano as the playmaker!.

[Majiball]

Italy's starting 11 will be.

Buffon - Zambrotta - Cannavaro - Chiellini - Criscito - Pepe - Gattuso(If Pirlo not fit) - De Rossi - Camoranesi - Di Natale - Gilardino.

Who out of Criscito and Chiellini is the left back?

[Roberto Policano]

Who out of Criscito and Chiellini is the left back?

Criscito left back.

[frosty]

My side would be Buffon - Cassani - Chiellini - Bonucci - Criscito - De Rossi - Palombo - Pirlo - Cassano - Rossi - Di Natale in a 4-3-1-2 with Cassano as the playmaker!.

Ah if only Lippi didn't have a vendetta against Cassano. Such a classy player and should be starting each game for Italy. Prandelli should include him once he takes over.

[Roberto Policano]

Ah if only Lippi didn't have a vendetta against Cassano. Such a classy player and should be starting each game for Italy. Prandelli should include him once he takes over.

I couldn't agree more mate.Cassano is a top class talent.

If Italy were blessed with talent at the moment i could understand Lippi leaving him out due to the way he can play up.But we don't have at the moment,so leaving him out is shear madness!.

[neekoy]

I think this is going to be a shock, I think Italy will go out with Paraguay and New Zealand going through.

I think the Italians as always will start to slow and NZ to get a shock 1-0 win. Slovakia have taken a very experienced side, first time as an independent nation, they are going to ruin the Italian cup defence.

[philipl]

This is an intriguing Group with three dark horses in it.

If Paraguay recover the form that propelled them to the top of the South American qualifying they will win this one (a big IF) whilst Slovakia are precisely the sort of outfit Italy didn't want to face.

[Mr. E]

I think NZ can take Slovakia. And if they can get a draw from Paraguay...who knows. I'll be rooting for our captain and his country for sure though.

[philipl]

NZ will get their backsides handed to them. They would struggle in League 1 in England and they have three strong very technical (in differing ways) opponents who will be fancying qualification from this Group as a minimum.

[Foxxx]

I think NZ can take Slovakia. And if they can get a draw from Paraguay...who knows. I'll be rooting for our captain and his country for sure though.

If Slovakia takes us lightly, and we take our chances, I cannot see why we cant beat them. We beat Serbia in similar fashion the other week. Against Slovenia we lost 3-1, but that was 2 good free kicks, from very dodgy ref calls, and 1 clanger by our goalie. Yes we are there making up the numbers, but dont think we will be hammered as much as people think, but I would love to be going into the Paraguay game with the chance to get thru to the second round.

Nelsen will be sitting out the Chile game tonight (NZ Time) with an ear infection, but that isnt going to keep him out of the World Cup games, and Tim Brown is flying his way over to South Africa to take his place in the squad

[tony gale's mic]

NZ will get their backsides handed to them. They would struggle in League 1 in England and they have three strong very technical (in differing ways) opponents who will be fancying qualification from this Group as a minimum.

Have to agree with this. They're my second team; I think even without Nelsen they'd be my second team as New Zealand is a fantastic country with warm, genuine people but there's so little quality in the side its unreal to think they'll be competing on the same pitch as some of the big guns. And with a country so small and more into rugby and cricket, it makes it far less likely we'll have a similar situation to the African sides where there's a clutch of great players we never knew about.

[philipl]

Italy v Paraguay could be a cracker this evening.

[RoyRover]

I'm looking forward to seeing the Slovakian team play. I feel devastated for long time servant Miroslav Karhan who will miss the World Cup because of injury. But they have some really good players, including Napoli play maker Marek Hamsik, who could be a real star. The likes of Weiss, Stoch, Vittek, Sestak and Holosko are other good players. I think they could cause a surprise in this group.

[herbergeehh]

Italy's likely line-up:

Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Criscito; De Rossi, Montolivo; Pepe, Marchisio, Iaquinta; Gilardino

Would prefer Pazzini and Di Natale + Pepe up front, but with Italy you never get what you wish for. Exciting midfield line-up all the same, Pirlo coming back will probably mean that Montolivo drops to the bench...

It's a tough group for them, I just hope they can get a good result from the off against Paraguay - a win tonight will probably ensure qualification to the next round. The central line of Buffon - Chiellini - de Rossi and Gilardino is good, I'm guessing it will be a 2-0 win (Marchisio and Di Natale with the goals).

[philipl]

Roque must be so chuffed he went to City.

Doesn't make the Paraguay starting line-up apparently.

[tcj_jones]

I really hope Paraguay get the opening goal, if there is one, otherwise this could be a very dull game of football.

[tcj_jones]

Why is the @#/? BBC commentator trying to pronounce all the Italian player's names in a ###### Italian accent? It's really annoying me, more so than the horns.