Well, this has to be the shocker of the tournament so far, almost the equivalent of France's early exit from WC2002. Conspiracy theories abound, as they frequently do when Italy loses. Fortunately, they seem to have a lot less credibility than they did during the World Cup (I seem to remember at least two valid Italian goals being disallowed in their last game).
It's sad to see them go out given the quality of their play against Sweden. However, I think perhaps a shakeup is needed. Trappatoni seems to be mired in the past in his tactics and there is definitely a need for the latest generation of Italian players to step foward--this can only happen if the current generation aren't selected or choose not to play.
Having seen Sweden play, I fully expected them to go through to the quarter-final stage and I do think they could be the dark horse of the tournament (along with the Czech Republic). I have money on the Netherlands making it to the final but I suspect that they will underachieve yet again.
Posted by artandscience at June 22, 2004 09:51 AM