Preview: Italy vs. Ukraine

June 30th, 2006 | by: Peter | View Comments

GAME DETAILS
Italy vs. Ukraine, Hamburg, 21:00 CET
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World Cup Gear: Italy | Ukraine

THE BIG PICTURE
Two teams coming off emotional, draining matches that were won from 12 yards out meet in this quarterfinal. Ukraine beat Switzerland on penalties after 120 agonizingly scoreless minutes, while Italy saw their game plan pay off in the last 10 seconds of injury time, picking up a penalty kick on a counter attack. Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi is serving the third of a four match ban after being sent off against the United States and Marco Materazzi is suspended for one match after being sent off against Australia. Ukraine striker Andriy Voronin and Italy defender Alessandro Nesta are both out with thigh injuries. Italy’s unbeaten run has been extended to 22 games — they last lost in October 2004 against Slovenia in a World Cup qualifier. Italy’s path to the semifinals might be smoother than Gelato, but Ukraine told World Cup Blog that they, “want to make it like the kind that’s not smooth, the kind with frozen chunks of fruit in it. Like raspberries. Or kiwi.”

Teams: Likely formation; shirt numbers; names, caps and goals, coach:

Italy (4-3-2-1): 1-Gianluigi Buffon (64-0); 19-Gianluca Zambrotta (55-1), 6-Andrea Barzagli (9-0), 5-Fabio Cannavaro (97-1), 3-Fabio Grosso (20-1); 20-Simone Perrotta (28-1), 21-Andrea Pirlo (28-5), 8-Gennaro Gattuso (44-1); 16-Mauro Camoranesi (23-1); 10-Francesco Totti (55-9); 11-Alberto Gilardino (19-8) Coach: Marcello Lippi

Ukraine (3-5-2): 1-Oleksander Shovkovsky (72-0); 6-Andriy Rusol (26-2), 22-Vyacheslav Svidersky (8-0), 2-Andriy Nesmachny (53-0); 9-Oleg Gusev (29-1), 4-Anatoly Tymoshchyuk (59-1), 8-Oleg Shelayev (23-0), 19-Maxim Kalinichenko (24-4), 11-Serhiy Rebrov (74-15); 7-Andriy Shevchenko (68-31), 10-Andriy Voronin (36-4) Coach: Oleg Blokhin

LIVEBLOG
Follow the match highlights as they happen on the Italy vs. Ukraine LiveBlog and stop by to leave your thoughts and comments about the match

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TEAM BLOGS & DISCUSSIONS
Italy Team Blog
Ukraine Team Blog