Italy 2-3 Slovakia: Italy deservedly out

Italy crashed out of the world cup after all the critic's criticism of Marcello Lippi's selections were proven right. Lippi went for functionality over flair and it has cost them dear. For 80 minutes Italy showed next to nothing going forward until Antonio Di Natale got on the end of a Iaquinta back heel after a mazey run from Fabio Quagliarella. Slovakia however only added to their lead to make it a deserved 3-1. Quagliarella pulled one back with a sublime finish in injury time but it was too little too late and now Lippi will be hammered by the Italian press, and rightly so when you consider the calibre of the players left at home. Giuseppe Rossi, Antonio Cassano, Fabrizio Miccoli, Davide Santon and the unpredictable Mario Balotelli all could have added so much more than say Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alberto Gilardino. All of the aforementioned players will play European football next season while the orginal front pairing for Italy will almost certainly not, especially if Iaqunita is dumped from Juve's lineup as is expected. Cesare Prandelli takes over now, and he should breath new life into the Azzurri set up and pick players on merit.


Serie A players lighting up the tournament
As for the rest of the world cup there are still plenty of Serie A stars playing their hand in the tournament, in which it is fair to say that Argentina and Brazil have looked the best so far. Marek Hamsik and his Slovakia side have advanced and he was sublime today. Brazil additionally have advanced with good performances from Maicon, Julio Cesar, Juan, Lucio and Felipe Melo in the middle of the park. So far there has been no chance for Milan's excellent defender Thiago Silva, but he is likely to get a game against Portugal on Friday. Argentina too have advanced with a 100% record and Fiorentina's Mario Bolatti and Palermo's Javier Pastore did well against Greece a couple of days ago, as did Milan target Nicolas Otamendi who is sure to be hot property after this World cup. Diego Milito, after a wonderful season with Inter, has not featured a great deal but did get a game against Greece the other night. It remains to be seen whether he will get the nod against Mexico or whether Real Madrid's Higuain will remain upfront.

Wesley Sneijder, and maybe Klass Jan Huntelaar, are in action tonight for Holland as they look to win three out of three but Cameroon will be looking to end a poor tournament on a high and Samuel Eto'o will look to add to his goal total. Denmark have a great chance to progress tonight and Simon Kjaer has played a role so far for them with a superb pass helping to set up Nikolas Bendtner's goal against Cameroon while Juve's Cristian Poulson literally took one in the face against the African side to preserve their advantage . Japan stand in their way but my money is on the Danes to sale on and play Paraguay. Finally, Uruguay have sailed through the first round with two wins and a draw and could well make the semi final's. They face South Korea next and then potentially one of the USA or Ghana next to fight for a semi final berth against Brazil it would seem in the easier half of the draw, while the other side contains England, Germany, Argentina and Spain. Playing a role in Uruguay's success is Lazio keeper Fernando Muslera and Palermo forward Edison Cavani, supporter the magnificant Diego Forlan upfront. I'll be watching their progress with some interest.

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