The former West Ham United manager said that Italy would be the surprise package of this edition of the European Championships, and said they can go the distance.
Zola is confident that the Italians will be a threat to all the teams in the competition and is backing them to overcome the hinderance posed by the English team who have performed well under Roy Hodgson.
La Nazionale had a very tricky group which featured the reigning European Champions, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011.
Zola has great knowledge of the English style of play having attained legendary status at Chelsea and then managing West Ham United in the Premier League.
Italy have had problems with their strikers not able to find the back of the net on a consistent basis, as it is evident by their two draws and a solitary win against the Republic of Ireland.
The former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Napoli-c40003 forward was talking to the Gazzetta Dello Sport, and was adamant that it did not matter who the Azzurri got to play, they would pose a threat to any side they faced off. Zola was quoted to have said:
"If http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 make no difference: the opponents will have more problems. Apart from a drop in the final stages because of fatigue, I saw good ball movement and fluidity in the final third.”
The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 legend went on to state that the credit goes to the current Italian manager, who has implemented his style of play to great effect. Prandelli has stepped away from the traditional Italian style of play for a more fluid, attacking style of football.
He mentioned:
"Prandelli has had the courage to not play the 'Italian' way, having invested in quality and focused on ball possession and that coupled with our defence gives us three or four major tactical advantages."
Prandelli has tried different options for the European Championship, deploying the 3-5-2 formation for the opening two group matches, and finally trying the 4-3-1-2 formation against the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Antonio-Di-Natale-c6306
in attack for the first time in the tournament.
Tags: