90' (+2):

And the match is over... Mutu is almost crying on the sideline and the goalkeepers become the heroes of the match!!! 

90' (+2): And the free kick is taken but far from the goal

90' (+1): A yellow card to De Rossi for the tackle from behind

87': Sub for Romania: Mutu leaves the pitch disappointed by missing the penalty kick and is replaced by Cocsis

83': Sub for Italy. Ambrosini replaces the exhausted Camoranesi

82': And just one note about the penalty kick: The save was great but Mutu kicked right at the middle...

82': The match is still up for grabs!!!

80': What a match!!!!

80': Incredibly saved by BUFFON!!!!

79': Controversy... more controversy!!!

79': Another corner for Romania again!!! PENALTY!!!! PENALTY!!! FOR ROMÂNIA!!!!

78': Zambrotta acts behind the defense again and Lobont, once again, is there to save it with his leg.

78': Contra dangerously chest the ball back to Lobont!!!

76': Sub for Italy: forward Quagliarella is in and Del Piero will get his deserved rest.

75': Corner for Romania. It's Mutu on the ball. Cleared by the defense

74': Who said Toni is not doing anything??? Great set up by Toni to Cassano and the header is INCREDIBLY saved by Lobont. Certainly the man of the match!!!!

72': Free kick for Italy and yellow card for Goian. His second in the tournament. He's out for the next match

69':

69': Romania playing much better now. The substitutions worked much better for the yellow heads than for the Azzuri

69': Grosso saves Italy now!!! Great combination Niculae/Nicolita and the Italian defender saves the Azzura

65': Cassano still didn't have an opportunity and the same we could say about Nicolita

59': Sub for Romania: Nicolita replaces Petre!

59': The match is open for grabs now!!! Both teams are fired up by the goals and the next minutes will be filled with action from both sides

56': Sub for Italy! Cassano in - Perrota out

55': No time for celebration for Horia and the Romanians fans!!! Chiellini heads the cross to the middle of the box and Christian Panucci stretches his leg to put the ball in!!!! 1-1!!! Great Goal!!! Great momento to tie the match

55': GGGGOOOOAAAAALLL!!!!! ITALIA!!!!

53': Mutu reads Zambrotta's intention to pass it back with his head and intercepts it!!!! Then he fires the canon ball inside the net!!!!

53': Adrian Mutu!!!!

53': GGGOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLL ROMÂNIA!!!!!

51': Patch-Rat dives... He needs to be careful not to dive with his forehead!!! I don't need to see his bloody face again!!! Hahahaha

50': Del Piero had an opportunity. And a great defensive touch by Contra!!!

46': Italy starts the second half putting more pressure on the Romanian defense

Half Time:

Romania goes to the locker room happy with the result. Italy could've score in 4 or 5 opportunities (the actually did once but the referee called it offside) ... Romania also played well and in two or three good shots the yellow heads could have opened the score.

Expect a great second half!!! 

45' (+2): Wait a second... TONI was not offside!!! The referee interferes in the result of the first half!

45' (+2): GGGGOOOOOAAAALLLL... but no!!!! Offside!!!

44': Patch-Rat is bleeding from his forehead!!! Looks nasty

43': Deep ball for Del Piero. But the flag went up!!! He was offside

43': Mutu gets a yellow card by tackling Pirlo... Of course the Italian is making it look like a Felini movie!!! Get up man!

40': Toni had a great header and Lobont again!!! amazing goalkeeping by the Romanian!!!! Total pressure by Italy

39': Second great save by Lobont in sequence... A third corner for the Italians

39': Italy is wasting too many chances. Toni leaves the ball to Perrota and he couldn't finish.

36': The Romanian's have a good short pass. The midfielders need to get closer to Mutu and Niculae to create a one-two or a overlap play.

32': Nope!!! It was Del Piero that sent the ball straight to the last row of the stands!!! :P

31': Here comes Pirlo

31': Del Piero, great play... FFFFOOOUUULLLL!!!!

31': Italy again. Now it's Zambrota that crosses to the target man Toni.

30': Pirlo takes it. And it's deflected before Lobont easily picks it up

30': Petre with the high kick. Free Kick for Italy.

28': Long pass to Mutu and he was about 500 meters off side

28': Great shot by Rat!!! The man with a patch on his forehead! Buffon wouldn't reach it but the ball went near the left post

27': Another chance wasted by the Italians. Camoranesi (who's playing very well too) crosses and Toni doesn't finish well

25': Nico Dica is coming in for the injured Radoi in the Romanian team

24': Corner for Romania. The second in a row. Petre on the ball. Buffon intercepts it

23': Oh, it's back!!!

23': And we lost satellite communication!!!!! FUCK!!!!

21': Radoi left the pitch after clashing in the air head-to-head with his team mate Rat

19': Here comes the Yellow Heads again!!! Another free kick.... Chivu this time... The ball travels all the way and hits Buffon's right post!!! AAAAAALLLMMMOOOSSSTTTT!!!!

17': Great free kick for Romania. Taken by Gabriel Tamas. A lot of power. Buffon has to stretch all the way to his left to save it

15': Another great ball by Grosso... A little to high for Toni but Italy is playing extremely offensive football ... The only problem is that Germany did that yesterday too and we all know what happened.

15': Mutu had the chance in the counter attack... But Buffon  makes a great save!!!

13': Grosso is playing very well. Petre are being able to stop him whatsoever

13': Grosso wins another corner for Italy.

12': Italy looks much, much better... Camoranesi crosses.... Toni ALMOST!!!!

11': Grosso puts the ball between Petre's legs and wins a free kick

10': Great chance for Italy!!!! Del Piero receives from Perrota and heads it near the post

8': Pirlo takes it and the ball bounces back from the denfese, goes out for a throw-in

8': Camoranesi is down. Free kick for Italy on the right side of the box

6': Grosso crosses from the left and it's easily picked up by Lobont

5': The ball is cleared but the Romanians could connect the counter attack

5': Italy win a corner. Danger for Romania

4': We are in the "studying" phase of the match but one can already tell that this won't end in boring 0-0. Romania just tried a pass to the box but the flag went up

1':

Game is On!!!!

Here are the Line-ups: 

ITALY: 1.Buffon, 19.Zambrotta, 2.Panucci, 4.Chiellini, 3.Grosso; 21.Pirlo, 10.De Rossi, 16.Camoranesi, 20.Perrota, 7.Del Piero; 9.Toni.

ROMANIA: 1.Lobont, 2.Contra, 4.Tamas, 5.Chivu, 3.Rat; 6.Radoi, 8.Codrea, 15.Goian, 7.Petre; 10.Mutu, 21.D. Niculae. 

Before Kick Off: Less than 15 minutes to kick off. Italy will start with Del Piero this time. I still don't understand why he didn't start last match. Anyway, I think that if Italy attacks to much they might be surprise by Romania just like the Germans were surprised by Croatia. The question is: can Romania attack with efficiency? Or better, can they attack at all?

  ITALY 

After the fiasco against the Netherlands, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni decided to change the starting line up for the match against Romania.

Del Piero will assume the captain armband and Chiellini will be on the pitch too. Italy will go for a almost Kamikaze formation with possibly 3 forwards (Camoranesi, DiNatale and Toni) and Del Pierro right behind them.

Crazy? Desperate? Well, understandable.

ROMANIA

Romanian forward Ciprian Marica was certainly missed on the opening match against France. 

The yellow heads needed a more offensive team and the lack of action from both sides made that match the most boring so far in the competition and the only match that ended up goalless. 

But Victor Piturca decided not to use Marica on today's match against Italy because of the head injury suffered by the forward during a training session on June 10th.

Still according to Piturca the team intends to show a much more offensive football today than what they displayed against the French.  

Better late than never. Romania has a slight advantage in the table compared to Italy. And in this group 1 point might really mean a lot.

90' (+3): And it over... What a big waste of time this match was. ESPN guy says it was an excellent result for Romania. It was a bad result for both teams!

90' (+3): and a late sub. Radoi leaves and Dica comes in for Romania

90' (+3): A free kick for Romania. Last chance?

90': Oh man!!! That sucks! Not even the argument was interesting! And the referee is going to toreture us with 3 more minutes

89': hahahaha... Yeah!!! Some drama... That's what's we've been missing on this match...

86': And it's cleared. The rebound!!! Nope, bad cross... the ball goes wide and far from the goal

86': Ok, a corner for the French

85':

85': Well... after that awful pass by Makelele I can only say that this match DESERVES this score...

81': And nothing happens

81': But Romania has a corner

80': We are 10 minutes away from the first 0-0 of this 2008 Euro

80': Deep ball for the Romanian offense. But Daniel Niculae was offside

78': Tand Mutu leaves the pitch, Marius Niculae comes in. Any comments Horia?

78':

More subs coming up:

 Benzema makes way for Nasri. The Arsenal new kid

76': Another shot from France. Malouda. But the ball, once again, goes out for a goal kick

75': Did I say that too early? What kind of back pass to the keeper was that?

74': Ribery tries to take on defenders but is blocked. Romania is not being effective up front but the defense is playing very well. Very solid!

71': Anelka is leaving and the crowd goes crazy. A very young attack for France now: Gomis and Benzema

71': Here comes Gomis!!!! yyyaaayyy  (I'm not cheering for France but I like this kid)

68': Romania is really worried about France's attack. The yellow heads went back to the defensive formation after starting the second half better.

65': Benzema leaves Chivu down and takes a shot from the top of the box... the ball goes wide. Nice try but it's time for a sub for France, I guess

64': Here comes a sub for Romania: Cocis leaves the pitch and Codrea comes in... A midfielder for another midfielder

61': One hour of football and no score. Actually not many chances to score either. =(

59': Malouda tackled Contra from behind. The Romanians asked for a card but the referee is waving their complaints

58': First clear shot for Benzema. A perfect set up from Ribery but Benzema's shot was too soft and easy for Lobont

56': Nice hell pass from Mutu and the cross almost finds a head in the box. But France's defense controls it and slows the game down

54': Romania are looking better indeed but they still can't find the right ball, the right pass, the right play...

51': But nothing comes out of the free kick

51': Sagnol moved up and lost the ball then, comes back and tackles Mutu from behind. Foul and yellow card for the French

49': Great play for Malouda on the left side. He runs with the ball, turns Contra around, once, twice and shoots... the ball flies over the bar

47': Frenchi goes wild next to me!!! He wanted a foul called on Ribery...

45': And we're back on for the second half!!!

Half Time: So far 5 total shots for France but only one on goal. 3 total shots for Romania and also only one on goal.  Niculae, Goian and Contra were shown yellow cards.

Half Time:

I had a lot of expectations for this match. France has probably the best midfield and offensive squad of all the team in the competition but so far Romania's tight defense managed to control Benzema, Ribery, Anelka and Malouda very well.

On the other hand I expected to see much (much) more from Mutu and Niculae on the Romanian side.  

45' (+1): Romania decided to become dangerous in the end of this first half. The moved the team up to put pressure in France's defense but it was just a little too late. The referee blows his whistle and the First Half is over

45': Corner for Romania. Mutu takes it and another clearance by the defense

43': Goian runs into Ribery. Another fouls against Romania and another yellow card

42': Nice combination Bezema/Ribery and the defender almost put it inside his own goal.

41': Free kick on the left side of Romania's attack. The ball is sent into the box and cleared immediately by the French defense

40': Contra got a yellow card for kicking the ball when it was out of play...

39': The Romanian crowd is funny but the cameras should show some pretty girls now! Just to cheer us up...

37': Great play by Anelka on the right side. He shoots but from a bad angle and the ball hits the side of the net. - Ribery moved to the left side now

33': Malouda crosses and the defense gives another corner. The corner is played short and the second cross finds Anelka's head but the ball goes over the bar

32': 30 minutes has gone by and France is taking the initiative but the French are missing the last touch. The fine touch that was Zidane's trademark. Romania still needs to prove me right and produce something

30': It's actually not that close. And the ball hits the wall... and now a hand ball by Sagnol.

29': Benzema is fouled at the top of Romania's box. The kid is good!

27': France showin more intensity now. Les Bleus are using the wings with Malouda and Ribery. Romania tries to explore the space behind them and Niculae just got a yellow by doing a very theatrical dive mixed with a handball

25': Mutu goes down. Toulalan blocked him illegally ... that's a foul

24': After the corner Sagnol fought for the ball in the air and the referee called it a hand ball... hmmm... I don't know about that

23': Great play by Rbery on the right side. His first play on the match and the cross is cut by Romania's defense for a corner

22': As my friend Lord of The Wing said, Romania is using the incredible 9-0-1 formation

20': France with 60% of ball possession at this point. But Not really finding the necessary space to get close to Romania's goal

19': Anelka receives a pass... but the flag went up. He was off side

18': The ball is lost in midfield and France has a great opportunity. Malouda kept himself onside and Lobont made a great save by stepping up to block that ball

14': After the first 12 minutes the match looks very balanced. None of the teams are risking to give the opponent the opportunity for a counter attack.

9': Frenchi right next to me... is saying... What the F$#CK!!!

9': A chance for Romania with Mutu and a chance for France with Anelka. But both teams are still in the "studying" phase of the match

7': Ribery sets to take the free kick. There he goes and France is still on attack

5': 5 minutes and 3 fouls against Romania

4': Another fouls. Contra almost chopped Anelka's head off

2': First foul of the match. Mutu went like a mad dog to get the ball from Thuram. The Romanians are not fooling around

0': And it's on!!!!

Before Kick Off:

No Thierry Henry, Yes Adrian Mutu...

The crowd is ready. So are Horia and Frenchi ... an me in the middle of course