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Batava

Listed below are comments made by Batava between Tuesday, 17th June 2008 and Wednesday, 18th June 2008.

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Italy will provide Spain's real test 01:43am on 18 Jun 2008 By the way..Italy vs Spain makes my mouth water.
Don't know about the rest of you footy fans. :)
We will see what Spain is made off.
Italy will provide Spain's real test 01:37am on 18 Jun 2008 Italy had the misfortune of getting a early goal against in the match they played against Holland.
There are very few teams that can spring back from a early goal against and switch to attack and taking control of the midfield when it's there very first match on the tournament especially Italy.
Italy are always slow starters.
We might live to regret Italy getting through our group but it was simply impossible to lose from Romania who just didn't want to win.
Italy will provide Spain's real test 00:54am on 18 Jun 2008 Playing not to lose even when you see Italy go up by 1 goal.. the score 0-0 why would you not start to throw everything you have at a side that is just playing to impress van Basten?
And has by the way a shaky defense.
Only France put some real pressure on our defense and they were rewarded with a goal.
Sure they got unlucky with the counter attack shortly after, which seem to become a staple of van Basten's Dutch side.
But still why play 5 defenders?
It makes no sense to me.
Italy will provide Spain's real test 00:36am on 18 Jun 2008 I'm surprised people actually thought the Netherlands would not play to win.
Maybe it's naive but it's just not in the football culture in the Netherlands to make what could possible be a more tactical decision to lose, instead of just playing for the win.
It was also very hard to actually try and lose from a Romanian side that started with 5 defenders and simply played extremely negative football.
When they were the ones who had everything to win from this match.
Faltering French look their age 10:53pm on 17 Jun 2008 Romania's Mutu looked very lonely.
Others have said the Dutch reserves should have let Romania win but the Romanian side never showed an inclination that they actually wanted to win the match.
How is it possible a team can approach such a important match with such a negative and conservative attitude?
Even after they go 1-0 down.
Italy at least could make things interesting.
Faltering French look their age 6:56pm on 17 Jun 2008 The Dutch will play a reserve side changing 9 players from the starting 11 against France.
It's still not a bad side but I will be quite amazed if they manage a win against Romania a side which not only beat the Netherlands and drew against them during qualifying but also performed very well against Italy and France.

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