I watched this one at the Freemasons Arms down in Covent Garden on a whim and with a mate. We must have been the only English people there.
The pub was packed to the rafters with typically obnoxious Italians and a token sprinkling of rather intimidated Spanish. Great atmosphere, The Italians belted out their anthem, and it really is one to belt out, but that was probably their finest moment of the night.
The game that followed was truly dire, worst since France - Romania, and the only thing that made it vaguely interesting was winding up the Italian fans. My respect for Italian football and the morons who follow it was only diminished further when their loudest cheer of the night, by a country mile, was for David Villa's penalised dive. Do these people only enjoy the whistle and the card?
Anyway it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable penalty shootout. We were going mental with the Spanish when Casillas saved the first one but when Buffon did his bit we had a bunch of Italian loons jumping up and down in our face chanting 'Forza Italia' and 'Fuck You'. The satsifaction when Cesc finished the job was immense and we made sure the Italians knew about it.
The pub was packed to the rafters with typically obnoxious Italians and a token sprinkling of rather intimidated Spanish. Great atmosphere, The Italians belted out their anthem, and it really is one to belt out, but that was probably their finest moment of the night.
The game that followed was truly dire, worst since France - Romania, and the only thing that made it vaguely interesting was winding up the Italian fans. My respect for Italian football and the morons who follow it was only diminished further when their loudest cheer of the night, by a country mile, was for David Villa's penalised dive. Do these people only enjoy the whistle and the card?
Anyway it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable penalty shootout. We were going mental with the Spanish when Casillas saved the first one but when Buffon did his bit we had a bunch of Italian loons jumping up and down in our face chanting 'Forza Italia' and 'Fuck You'. The satsifaction when Cesc finished the job was immense and we made sure the Italians knew about it.
