SENT TO GELSENKIRCHEN – The two matches against Spain a Euro 2012 have in some way marked the career of Richard Montolivo. Tonight’s match between National Of Spalletti and the Red Furies will instead inaugurate its second life, that of a Sky Sport talent. “I joined a Dream Team – jokes from Gelsenkirchena few hours before kick-off – But now I can’t send anyone on goal but just enjoy the show. What kind of Spain will the Azzurri find? A very different team from the one that dominated the four-year period 2008-2012. That’s a crazy team, perhaps unreachable. Challenging Xavi and Iniesta was like going to university. This one is very talented, plays vertically and has less control of the game, but knows how to restart and also do the Italian style counterattack. They probably learned that from us”.
Montolivo and the commentary on Italy’s debut
TO Montolivo Spalletti’s national team really liked their debut with Albania: “Especially because it started off uphill and had an extraordinary reaction, not from everyone”. Moving then to the analysis of the individuals, with reference to what his role was, Montolivo complimented Stretcher,”a universal player, among the best midfielders in the world”, but also to Frattesi, “our joker, he has demonstrated it at Inter and now also in Azzurri. He has the timing of insertion into the DNA”.
Montolivo and the sentence about Pellegrini
Finally, a thought on Pilgrims,”perhaps the most useful player for this team for the many things he can do. Spalletti is right to trust him”. The former Atalanta, Fiorentina and Milan midfielder finally looked back to twelve years ago: “The most pleasant memory of that expedition was the semi-final win against Germany who would dominate the following years, as they demonstrated at the World Cup in Brazil by defeating the competition. The least pleasant was the final, which we weren’t able to play to the best of our ability”.
