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KOPI-TALKS
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WELSH DELIGHT - A STORY TO BE REMEMBERED 17.10.02 Previous Page Next Page What a victory for the Welsh Warriors! Wales has proved themselves being able to rumble with the best in Europe by scoring a famous victory over their more illustrious opponents Italy at the Millennium Stadium. What made Wales' win even sweeter was that the match did not end in a scrappy 1 - 0 result as I had predicted but it was a 2 - 1 confident display from Wales. As my friend Beng Neo and myself had predicted, Wales has got what it takes to win Italy at home. If you might had seen it, the writing has been on the wall for a famous Wales victory. Before the match began, Giovanni Trapattoni's Italy have been troubled by the growing list of injuries and the negative effects on the team after a dismay 1 - 1 draw with Yugoslavia on Saturday. Mark Hughes in contrast had an almost full strength squad to pick from and his team was brimming with confidence.
Italy had no answer to the pace and doggedness of Wales. As I suspected, the shorter Italian defenders were prone to long and high balls attacks. John Hartson was an easy target man for Wales up front. He could easily outjump Alessandro Nesta and provided knock-downs. Craig Bellamy, Ryan Giggs and Simon Davies had the pace that the Italians found to be a menace. And not once but twice, when Italy's defence were caught out cold by Craig Bellamy's pace. In the 12th minutue, Bellamy had the chance to dash down the right flank and sent a pass for Simon Davies to score from 10 metres. Bellamy again made full use of his pace in the 71st minute to outpace Nesta when he latched onto a delicate pass from Hartson and rounded Gianluigi Buffon for an easy goal. To say that the Italians are slow to warm up in a major tournament is an understatement. Their results of 2 - 0 win over Azerbaijan, 1 - 1 draw with YYugoslavia and 1 - 2 loss to Wales, shows a worrying downward trend in their performance. If Italy is to maintain any hope of qualifying for Euro 2004 Finals in Portagal, they must start performing in the next few matches. Italy must improve on their lethargic displays since World Cup 2002 and play catch up with the other opponents in Group Nine, particularly Yugoslavia and Wales.
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