Ribéry can cause some great problems out on that French wing, the French team also would have been looking for moments of inspiration from Thierry Henry who has looked a little out of character so far in Euro 2008. Henry was once a great player, he's been pretty awful at Euro 2008 however and could have used this game as an opportunity to prove all his doubters wrong.

Coupet
Evra, Abidal, Gallas, Clerc
Ribéry, Toulalan, Makelele, Govou
Henry, Benzema

The following twelve substitutes were named for France: Anelka, Vieira, Boumsong, Thuram, Sagnol, Squillaci, Frey, Gomis, Malouda, Mandanda, Diarra, Nasri.

The first substitution came for France in the 10th minute when Ribery had to leave the field through injury, he was replaced by Nasri; only for Nasri to be taken off fifteen minutes later and replaced by Boumsong when Abidal saw red. The third and final substitution for France came in the 66th minute as Anelka came on to replace Govou.

Toni was looking to impress his manager in this match, he's not been great at Euro 2008 in my opinion but then again none of the Italian players really have. Del Piero has been the best of the Italian side so far in my opinion, he found himself left on the bench for this game however and will have been banking on Italy progressing in the tournament to allow him the opportunity of another first XI start.

Buffon
Grosso, Chiellini, Pirlo, Panucci, Zambrotta
De Rossi, Perrotta, Gattuso
Cassano, Toni

The following twelve substitutes were named for Italy: Ambrosini, Gamberini, Del Piero, Camoranesi, Materazzi, Amelia, De Sanctis, Di Natale, Quagliarella, Borriello, Barzagli, Aquilani.

Italy did not make any substitutions until after the first half was over, Ambrosini came on in the 55th minute to replace Pirlo and this was the first of three that would eventually occur. The second change came in the 63rd minute; Camoranesi for Perrotta, and then finally in the 82nd Gattuso came off and Aquilani was his replacement.

In the first two games of this tournament the French team has been extremely weak, the Italians have not been much better but certainly an improvement upon France; that's for sure. A win for either of these sides would mean that Romania would have to win their game against the Netherlands to qualify, if Romania did win their game however then neither France nor Italy would be able to qualify here regardless of how the game ended. Both of these matches were played at the same time, it was going to be a tough 90 minutes of football for all those involved in the scrap for Group C second place and never was this going to be an easy game between Italy and France. Both of these two teams contested the World Cup final two years ago, a lot has changed since then however and this time round the two teams were purely scrapping for European Championship quarter final qualification, nothing too testing but still quite a difficult task nonetheless.

The first nightmare blow came for France in the 10th minute as star player Ribery was forced to leave the field through injury. He was replaced by Nasri, Ribery is a key performer in the French side however and without him this French team was always going to have great difficulty winning this game. In the 25th minute the French game went from bad to worse as Luca Toni was brought down by Eric Abidal just in front of goal and a penalty was conceded. Not only was a penalty given against France but Abidal also saw red, this was not a great game for France and midway into the first half and the French side already looked to be out of this game. It's never good going down to ten men, doing so in the 25th minute makes the dilemma even more troubling however and after the double blow of losing Ribery and Abidal also the French side never looked likely of recovering.

Pirlo scored from the spot for Italy, the 25th minute goal for Italy certainly proved to be a great confidence boost for them and from here on in the side went from strength to strength. The amusing thing about the sending off of Abidal was that Nasri was then replaced by Boumsong; he'd only been on the field for 15 minutes and already be found himself being replaced. It was a strange one for France, the confidence of the French team was completely shot at this point and throughout the remaining 20 minutes of the first half the Italians had a number of other opportunities to score and on numerous occasions nearly grabbed a second. In the French attack the once great Thierry Henry was a shadow of his former self, he played a poor game and has in fact been fairly useless for the entirety of the French Euro 2008 tournament. Henry was not match fit for the first game against Romania, he started the games against the Netherlands and this Italy game also though, not to any real great effect however and Henry just seems to lack his former firepower now.

At half time it was Italy that was looking to be the most confident of the two teams, they deservedly had the lead and looked likely to extend this lead as the second half of football unfolded. In the 62nd minute De Rossi did just that as the ball reflected off the foot of Henry from a free kick and found its way into the back of the French net. This was quite a deflection off of the boot of Henry, not so much that the goal could be counted as an O/G on his behalf but certainly still a major deflection that ultimately caused the ball to hit the back of the net rather than safely landing in the hands of Coupet. Evra played some good football for France in the second half, he's been in great form for Manchester United this season and always the man looked excellent in this game against Italy. Patrice Evra is a great player, he's getting better all the time and in this game he always looked to be incredibly lively at all points of the match. Anelka came on in the 66th minute for France, he's not played much at Chelsea this season and was fairly ineffective in this game as well. Anelka has never been given much of a chance at international level, on the evidence of the performances he has put in throughout this tournament it's only right that he has not often been named in the squad as really he just doesn't play very well at all for his country. There is something lacking in Anelka's international game that is not so when he plays at club level; a lack of confidence and a lack of belief also.

Benzema had a great chance to pull one back for France, Buffon was forced into a rare save in this game however and did well in doing so. Italy enjoyed much of the ball throughout this game, they did play much of it with a man more than France on the field however so this is surely something that must have helped for them. As soon as Ribery was taken off injured it became obvious that France would lose this one, their heads dropped at that point and very rarely were the heads ever again lifted after this point. Italy could have had a third, it didn't quite fall for them however and the side therefore had to settle with the 2-0 rather than extending that lead any further. Any more goals and France may well have completely crumbled, several more goals could have come and this would definitely have furthered the confidence of Italy going into their European Championship quarter final match.

Italy did well in this game, they did not have much of a team to overcome in all honesty as this French side is one that plays without any confidence whatsoever at current but the team still did well to run out of this game as 2-0 winners. Italy enjoyed a far more comfortable game than they probably would have expected, it was a well earned win for Italy and the French fans can not have too many complains with having finished bottom of Group C. Raymond Domenech shall surely no longer manage the French national side, this French team is past its peak and none of the France team really hit form at all in this tournament. I'd love to see France do well again at some point in the future, the team is perhaps just a little too old at current however and the glory days of French football are now well and truly a thing of the past. Italy also is an aging team, it's one that seems to be fairing better than the French one however and despite the age of the Italian side wins still seem to come fairly easily for them. Italy are now heading for the quarter finals of Euro 2008 where they shall face Spain; it'll be a tough game and they'll possibly lose out there but they still did well to get through the group of death and go on to face a quarter final game even when the odds did at times seem to be stacked firmly against them. Its goodbye for France, Italy is in the quarter finals however and joins a string of sides that now includes the likes of Portugal, Croatia, and Germany also.

Final Score: France 0 - 2 Italy