England and Italy start their World Cup campaign on Saturday in the Amazonian jungle city of Manaus, a place where the heat and humidity might influence the two teams. The pitch is also in poor conditions and that will surely be a factor during this vital match, a game that neither team can afford to lose.
"It's important we don't give him much time and space when we come up against him because he can influence any game," said Gerrard, the England captain, about Italy veteran playmaker Andrea Pirlo. "He has got that ability." Pirlo now aged 35 now, was instrumental to leading Italy to the European Championship final two years ago, a run that included a penalty shootout victory over England in the quarter finals.
"I'm starting to get old. It would be useless to continue," Pirlo said. "Of course, I'll always be ready if they call me back, but if I'm on the national team and I don't play that would really bother me. So it's better to stay at home." In the other team head coach Roy Hodgson decided to leave most of the veterans home, take Ashley Cole for instance, and called in a big number of young players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
England win - 2/1 Draw - 2/1 Italy win - 9/5
yellonek 9 years ago
Well I didn't except England to lose that fast this year but well it's all up to them having quite a good squad and not going up is very bad... : (
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Dominic Horsley 9 years ago
It was a terrible shame to lose this game as it is literally the best I have seen England play in years..
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skrunici 9 years ago
but they played very well, and I think after urugay lost and bad match against costa rica england can go to next round...
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yapro123 9 years ago
1-2, and England again have troubles with going to 1/8, this is great team, but they always lost, i did not know why.
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skrunici 9 years ago
For me England have better players and I don't know why italy is favourite... Last chanse for gerrard to do something on world cup, and last chanse for a lot players in egnland but on the other side they have some young players and with their energy they can beat italy.
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