Italy and Spain both go seeking their first wins in Euro 2012 today after playing out a 1-1 draw in last Sunday’s Group C opener. While Vicente Del Bosque’s side have to wait until later tonight before squaring up to Republic of Ireland, the Italians take on group leaders Croatia in the early kick-off and, as usual, we’ve opened up the Dugout Discussion ahead of the 5pm showdown…
The team news is in already and the lineups are as follows:
Italy XI: Buffon; Bonucci, De Rossi, Chiellini; Maggio, Marchisio, Pirlo, Motta, Giaccherini; Cassano, Balotelli.
Croatia XI: Pletikosa; Srna, Corluka, Schildenfeld, Strinic; Rakitic, Modric, Vukojevic, Perisic; Jelavic, Mandzukic
Cesare Prandelli remains faithful to the XI that started the game against Spain. The 3-5-2 system stays intact, then, with Daniel De Rossi once again kept in defence, while right-back Christian Maggio offers Fantasy managers an out-of-position prospect on the right of the midfield five. Up front, Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli keep their places, with Antonio Di Natale set to once again play the role of impact sub.
Slaven Bilic’s side is unchanged from the 3-1 win over Republic of Ireland. Darijo Srna is again at right-back, cut-price Fantasy favourite Ivan Strinic (4.0 in the McDonald’s game) remains at left-back, while Luka Modric will keep the more advanced central midfield role against the Italian’s three-man defence. Unsurprisingly, Nikica Jelavic and Mario Mandzukic maintian their places up front after notching all of the goals against Ireland between them.
