Live Commentary EURO 2008

HOLLAND 3 - 0 ITALY

MAN OF THE MATCH: Giovanni VanBronckhorst

Match Highlights Here

9mins. After a chili dog and a quick thought, I figure I'll do this one too!
10mins. Sneijder has a great chance to break the deadlock and he hits in directly into Great Wall of Italy.
12mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Camoronesi, to Gattuso, to Luca Toni with the header....wide.
15mins. A bit of Dutch keep-away at the moment and Italy is happy to sit back and let them kick it around.
17mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Dirk Kuyt to Ruud VanNistelrooy through on goal and Buffon comes out. RVN has to try to go around and the chance is lost. Great goalkeeping! He could have easily taken RVN out for a penalty or even nicked him a bit and got called for a foul. Good stuff from the Dutch.
19mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Sniejder fancies his chance on goal and takes a swipe with his left foot high and wide.
21mins. Good stuff from the Italians now, but it looks like they don't like to use Ambosini in the middle. He's running around like he's lost with his arms stretched out...
23mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Luca Toni wishes he was a bit taller as the free kick goes begging just beyond Toni's reach. Meanwhile, Materazzi gets a touch to avoid VanNistelrooy from putting one home. VanNistelrooy would have definitely put that away if Materazzi get a touch.
25mins. Goooooooooaaaaaaallllllll!!! Ruud VanNistelrooy! Buffon punches clear only for Sneijeder to drill a shot back into the box and the off-side goal poacher, Ruud VanNistelrooy redirects it past Buffon into the Italian net.
30mins. Goooooooooaaaaaaallllllll!!! Giovani VanBronkhorst clears off his own goal line, a bit of passing play and back to Gio on the left who switches play to Dirk Kuyt, on the right, who deftly heads back to Wesley Sniejder who touches it ever so slightly past a sprawling Gigi Buffon. Look for this one on every highlight reel tonight folks! WHAT A GOAL! WHAT A GOAL!
33mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, DiNatale shoots between Boularouz's pegs and VanDerSar smothers the ball with only a fraction of a second to react. Great save from the Manchester United stopper.
40mins. Ugh, Dirk Kuyt passes directly to Camoranesi who slots a pass behind Luca Toni's run. Wasted chance from the Italians. Poor play from Dirk Kuyt.
42mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Vandervaart splits the Italian defence in two onto the boot of Ruud VanNistelrooy who tries his shot and Buffon comes up HUGE! FANTASTIC save from Buffon on VanNistelrooy. FAN-TAS-TIC!
44mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, DiNatale takes a chance and misses high above the target.
45mins. Half time whistle goes in Bern, Switzerland with the Dutch taking a 2-0 lead over the Italians.

Holland are kicking some Italian booty today. I do have to say that the first goal was totally offside on VanNistelrooy but, on the other hand he really should have scored his last chance. So let the cards fall where they may. Let's see if Italy can get an early goal and make this a match or if Holland come out in full attack mode and seal the deal? Let's get ready for some more end-to-end footie!

45mins. Second half kick off. Here we go.
46mins. Italy try to make something out of nothing and end up with a corner.
47mins. Are any of you wondering to yourselves how in the world Boularouz and Ooijer could be Holland Internationals? I'm just sayin'!
48mins. Ruud VanNistelrooy gets taken out in front of the Italian box but the referee keeps his whistle to himself. Poor refereeing in this match.
50mins. Impressive one touch passing game by the Dutch. The Italians are watching in shock and awe. They are not playing like 'World Champions' today.
52mins. Dirk Kuyt chases down the right side of the pitch and Materazzi stumbles over himself and inadvertently guides the ball out for a goal kick.
53mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Gianluca Zambrotta skins Dirk Kuyt, who was tracking back, and brings the ball to a shooting angle and launches his shot over the target. Nice play from Zambrotta, even if it went begging. Kuyt is still looking for him...
54mins. Jerk, oh I mean Materazzi out and Grosso in.
58mins. Yellow Card, DeJong gets a booked for smothering Ambrosini.
59mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Luca Toni brings the ball down on the turn and shoots right to Van Der Sar.
62mins. I wonder how much the Italians are paying Holland for this clinic?
63mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Andrea Pirlo takes a free kick into the side netting. Van Der Sar
was caught out of position on that one.
64mins. DiNatale out, DelPiero in.
65mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Immediate impact from the Italian veteran, Alessandro Del Piero, with a quick shot through the Dutch defence as Van Der Sar make routine diving save. With that shot I believe he may have doubled Italy's shot total? Don't quote me on that though.
68mins. A good spell for the Italians right now, but then again a broken clock is correct twice a day too, right? Ahem, I digress...Now the Dutch are entertaining their fans and myself with some more one touch play out of trouble and get a free kick. Nothing comes of it.
70mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, DelPiero has another go at goal but comes up with nothing. Missed chance there. Ruud VanNistelrooy out, Robin VanPersie in.
72mins. Cassano is waiting on the sidelines to come in.
74mins. Italy attacking but the Dutch put out the fire. Then, Robin VanPersie was free after springing the Italian defence only to be mis-judged offside. That would have been the proverbial 'nail in the coffin'
75mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Luca Toni beats the Dutch defence but can't get the ball under control. I bet he wished he had that chance again. Boularouz out, Heitinga in.
77mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Van Der Sar with a brilliant save on Pirlo from an angle.
77mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Pirlo hits a great shot on a free kick only for Van Der Sar to save then, if that wasn't enough we have another OOOOOhhhhhh moment at the other end of the pitch as they break and catch Italy out of sorts.
80mins. Goooooooooaaaaaaallllllll!!! Giovani VanBronkhorst heads one home! With the Italians watching Kuyt, after having his initial shot saved by Buffon, finds Gio all alone in the middle of the box and he makes no mistake with the cross.
81mins. Dirk Kuyt off, Affelay on
83mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, No sooner does Affelay get on the pitch does he take a shot and it skims the top of the bar. He had some pace on that shot.
88mins. OOOOOhhhhhh, Robin VanPersie does a training ground trick between three Italian defenders and makes his way out AND gets a venomous shot off to boot. Good play from the Arsenal striker.
90mins. 3 minutes added
90mins.+ If you put your head out of the window my bet is that you can hear the Dutch crowd clearly from Bern!
90mins.+ OOOOOhhhhhh, Luca Toni leaves a pass for Ambrosini 2 meters from the goal and he launches it over with a deflection from a Dutch defender. Same story for Italy again today.
90mins.+ And so the story goes. The referee has blown his whistle to end this thrashing.

Well, I see now that Panucci was off the pitch behind the goal line so he may have been in play on Van Nistelrooy's first goal. Therefore, he was actually onside in the play. Either way, the goal stands and that's what he does. The Italian papers should be fun to look through tomorrow! Heh heh heh...