Andrea Pirlo

spot on

Yes! Imagine the pressure on him, and then he comes up with that. Fecking amazing

Good call Dan. With all the pressure on him, his extreme nonchalance threw it back into england's faces.

Put that one on your DVD Hart.

You would look the biggest gimp if missed. Serious balls to do that

Wish he was 23 and we could watch him for another 10 years.  A proper footballer.

great great footballer

What a footballer,his kind are a dying breed.
Quality.

TheIronGiant
24 Jun 12 22:32
Joined:
01 May 11
| Topic/replies: 98 | Blogger: TheIronGiant's blog
Put that one on your DVD Hart.

Out of this world. More class than full England squad together

A class player. Watching him control this game was brilliant.

The closest player England have to him is Scholes, but as usual, England go the huff and puff route, with fingers crossed and stiff upper lips.

A prince among men. When Pirlo and Xavi are retired the game will never be the same for me.

Pirlo is the heartbeat of the Italian team yet England didn't have anyone within 5 yards of him. Crazy.

LEGEND

Agreed Dan.

Put that one on your DVD Hart.

absolutely. he totally popped hart's balloon with that penalty.

he's a joy to watch.

A Rolls Royce of a footballer

was superb tonight

better pen than in 2005 too

Legend,Class,World Class,a proper footballer.

And he looks about 40!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqzbYnjvI24

Superb in every game - best player in tournament so far

brilliant so far, and in the next game he'll barely touch the ball.

Three cheers for Pirlo.

If he doesnt win player of the tournament then there's no justice.

What odds was he for MOM tonight?

crisp
you don't win player of the tournament when you get knocked out in the semis

one of the best pens ever for sure - too cool

Pirlo = very poor mans xavi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpWUaRtZ-JU

Tomorrows England set up analysing the game, just insert Pirlo

^ dismal

Hart thought, let's make big silly faces and the Italians will miss. He could have saved Pirlo's pen with his hoop if he'd waited a second, daft arse

gunna, wouldn't say that so easily these days, xavi has been going through the motions for a while now, and wouldn't pass a ball if it meant hitting it further than 5 yards he would see it as the long ball game which would amount to nigh on heresy

dont be a mug xavi plays plenty of long balls there has NEVER been a better passer then xavi and i doubt there ever will be

2 years ago yes, he's not as good as he was.

To call Pirlo a poor mans Xavi is laughable,  border line retarded tbh.

duffy is correct as good as xavi is hes not the player was...

and yet pirlo is a year older than xavi.

i saw him do this for the 50th time.. same type of chip shot he used to do for milan..

maybe some of our media and coaches should watch that performance and realise you dont have to run round like a headless chicken to be deemed 'world class'

Scholes could have done that job for England.

We might have stood a chance then.

Pirlo ranks alongside Matthaus and Koeman when it comes to passing.

yes pirlo looked good but he was made to look brilliant by a side who let him run the show! does anyone on here think the germans will say here pirlo you have the ball, and take your time, spray passes to your team mates ,we will back off and give you all the room you need.

The penalty was witchcraft. It was a supreme moment of sporting brilliance that won the game for Italy. It was Ali's Rope-a-dope, Tiger Woods' Sunday red jersey, Warne's flipper. It was an act designed not just to score a goal but to cast a spell on the opposition.

And it worked. Young and Cole missed after that, but I genuinely think that such was the psychological blow Pirlo struck, any England player would have missed those two penalties.

First time he's done anything in the tournament, besides the Croatioa free-kick. Should of had Scott Parker or somebody up his arse the entire time, wouldn't of done a thing.

Also, he's named ''Andrea''

Ive not seen any threads about Pirlo before this tournament.

Some very easily impressed mugs/seething Scots/Irish on here it appears.

Very well put,Marychain 1.Pirlo had a tough few months in 2010 due to injury,meaning he had a poor WC,culminating in him leaving Milan for free to go to Juventus.The rest is.......

We had a Pirlo 30 years ago and we didnt know what to do with him,he couldnt get a game half the time and won a laughable 53 caps.His name was Glenn Hoddle.Now there was a football player.

JC1326     25 Jun 12 19:32 
First time he's done anything in the tournament, besides the Croatioa free-kick.

You missed the wonderful pass to set up Di Natale's goal against Spain then?

well said hitman,and if Pirlo was English,he wouldn't have been brought to the tournament.

G Hall 25 Jun 12 21:15
well said hitman,and if Pirlo was English,he wouldn't have been brought to the tournament.

This is correct. Leon Britton.

Pirlo wouldn't have scored against me!!!!!!! I wouldn't of dived like a moron every pen taken!!!!!! If you wait to see where the ball is going you have half a chance of saving it. Pirlo did this pen once b4 for milan. The goalie didn't move. You can guess what happened!! A very simple save and a very embarrassed Pirlo! Germany will MULLER them on thursday.

tbh  Danny Murphy could have looked like Zidane out there with that much time and space .

Pirlo was not dominating England's midfield; England had no midfield from 2nd half onwards, just 2 lines of 4 defenders.

England let them have the ball , no closing down til they got to within 30 yards of goal.

World class player even at 33 make it look so easy

outstanding game tonight

The reason Juventus went unbeaten all season. Legend. Italian players always late developers.

Late developer? He was motm in the 06 WC Final ffs

such a shame he's 34 and not 24...be worth a king's ransom to be sure.

He is playing brilliantly but he looked finished before he joined Juventus,his penalty was cheeky but should have been saved if Joe Hart and Eangland had done their homework,Pirlo has form in this regard.He was committed to the little dink before HArt threw himself to the ground when he should have been upright waiting for the dolly catch.

Where are all the Pirlo doubters now the ghuy is/was and always will be a supreme player.

I know, makes you laugh that all these supposed football experts are surprised how good he is.
Been world class for the last 10 years no doubts.

Astonishing to listen to the Studio Panel at times and see how completely clueless they are about anything outside the Premiership.

All raving about Alba aswell yet has been impressing for 2 years in Spain and clubs been tracking him since before Mata went to Chelsea. He's not a new player on the scene!

Really does make me chuckle how little these idiots paid millions to scout or pass judgement on game actually know about the world game

Doubtful if the journalists,and many of the pundits had realised what a job he had done for Juventus all season,and gone unbeaten in Serie A,no mean feat.Plus his last few games for Milan,also unbeaten.
His vision for making a pass is superb,appears to always know where everyone is.A joy to watch.
  Just read in the RP pullout that he had not lost a game in which he had played more than 22 mins. since OCTOBER 2010!!!!!

Anyone know why Milan gave him to Juve for free last summer?

unbiased - you're more right than you think.  Can't remember the pundits name but on talksport yesterday morning someone said 'Pirlo no longer played at a top club'

Majestic and a joy to watch again last night.

As well as his passing, he made so many interceptions and tidied up loose balls by anticipating play.  You don't neccessarily need a Scott Parker type player to do important defensive work.

Great player indeed.
When Beckham played for MILAN,Pirlo was more than happy to let Becks take centre stage.
As good as Pirlo is.......not even close to the magnificence of Baresi !!!
Expect Spain to do what England and Germany couldn't......mark him out of the match !!

*Oh,and by the way,it's 'I would HAVE.....I should HAVE'.....NOT 'I would of....I should of'.

Innit ?

That penalty changed the shoot out totally, and Ive never seen 1 penalty on its own do that. I thought the bbc went overboard on Italy`s performance last night though. The Germans had the better of the match by some way for me

"Expect Spain to do what England and Germany couldn't......mark him out of the match"




this is true, you'd expect Alonso or Busquets to be all over him every time he gets the ball. They certainly won't be sitting 10 yards off him and letting him do what he likes.

De Rossi lets him play

I think Fabregas will start upfront and will drop deep when they don't have possession to do a job on Pirlo.

Fabregs wont be given a job on Pirlo, Spain will just try and take away his influence by keeping the ball as they do every game.

That's true Spain wil have at least 65% of the ball so this is the game where Pirlo will have little of the ball something him and his team are not used to.

I dunno, the Italians aren't averse to a bit of backs to the wall defending are they?

Marchisio and De Rossi have been class in the last two games and out fought the other teams, if they can do that against Spain Pirlo can run the game.

If Spain are able to dominate the ball against them then Pirlo wil have little chance.

Jun 24, 2012 -- 11:51PM, duffy wrote:

crispyou don't win player of the tournament when you get knocked out in the semis

pounf you got to be joking Germany were methodical and there it ended Italy could have had 4/5 not many teams do that to the Germans,having said that I think Italy are average.

Pirlo's penalty while bold and ultimately effective was not well executed.  The credit he gets is overdone.  When chipping softly down the middle you should be elevating the ball to avoid the goalkeeper's trailing legs. 

Pirlo was very fortunate Joe Hart moved early and flung himself way out of range.  It was a poorly taken penalty that just worked out.  End of.

It wasnt a poorly taken penalty at all. By not chipping it high up in the air he is even more taking the p155.

It was a perfect penalty that swung the momentum Italy's way.

It went exactly where he wanted it to.

There is no reason to not elevate the chip. 

Again it was poorly taken and he got away with it.

No chance, it was a perfect penalty and went exactly where he wanted it to.

Pirlo actually executed this pen better here.  However Pinto did his research and clowned Pirlo on this occasion, unlike Joe Hart.  From clown to genius I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3cTN0mzaaU

Absolute rubbish.

Go and watch the video again, when the ball crosses the line Harts leg ids fully extened up and the ball is still a fot over it. It was a perfect penalty.

Once the Germans were chasing the game, they were always going to get caught, that flattered Italy for me. If Germany had started with Reus and Klose, I think we`d have seen a different result

ifs buts and maybes imo.

This is a good germany side who play without fear, but they're set up far too open under low and somewhat naive against the more canny of operators like the Italians.

As for Pirlo not executing his penalty very well, agains if buts and maybes. The scoreline says he executed his penalty perfectly.

Have to agree with Jam, absolute rubbish to start criticising the execution of the pen. Some people find the negative in everything, surely that can't be good for you.

Also agree with you RF. If my granny had balls she would have been my grand-dad. The best team won on the night and that's all that matters.

The question is do Italy now revert back to the 3-5-2 against Spain. Tactically they played a fantastic game against Spain. If they switch De Rossi back into the third defender, maybe he will track down Cesc, if he is say playing the false nine role and is asked to close down Pirlo when out of possession. I think Spain's only decent game to watch has been against Italy so hopefully the final is similar.