Last Gasp for France & Italy

Its a kaleidoscope of emotions as we head into this final day of the group of death, which looks set to claim two heavyweights of Europe. This is of course contingent on Romania defeating the orange-hot Dutch squad, which will more than likely be weakened severely for their quarterfinal matchup versus either Sweden or Russia. All of the attention will be on Zurich for the highly anticipated World Cup final rematch, but a Romanian victory in Bern would guarantee the little guy's progression into the quarterfinals and a date with Spain.

Much of France is calling for Domenech's head, and who can blame them. His team selection has been dubious in both games, there's no telling who he may call upon today. Benzema should get another chance, and I'd like to see Diarra instead of Makalele, but who knows what the Professor is conjuring. On the Italian side, I look for Luca Toni to keep matching Mario Gomez, in the who can squander more chances competition, that the two are leading at the moment. Charisteas and Pavyluchenko aren't far behind, but Toni, considering his pedigree, has to be at the top of this list at the moment.

But I hope it will be all academic if Romania play a smart game. They showed signs of life in their match with Italy, and unless they play tight and let the pressure of the tournament get to them, I see them winning tonight. A draw would of course suffice as well, if the French and Italians are deadlocked at the final whistle.

I hope that Romania wins. The French are dead and buried in my opinion, although I'd love to see them trounce Italy. I just hope that the Dutch don't hand either team a lifeline, because I don't feel either is worthy of the quarterfinals. From a Spanish perspective, they have to be pulling hard for Romania, but as bad as Italy and France have looked, they shouldn't be too concerned with any of the 3. Then again, they are Spain, and nothing is for certain.