Two years on from a majestic performance against England at the Euros, one of JOE’s all-time favourite footballers can make a difference against Roy Hodgson’s side again tonight.
THAT panenka penalty in the shoot-out against Joe Hart is obviously what most people remember, but it was far from the only impressive thing about Andrea Pirlo’s performance in Italy’s quarter-final victory over England at Euro 2012.
Pirlo ran the show with all the grace and authority of an orchestra conductor on the night and was so effective that Roy Hodgson has already been asked if there are any special plans in place to stop him this time, while Paul Scholes has suggested that Danny Welbeck should stick to the Juventus man like, to borrow a GAA phrase, sh*te to a blanket.
It’s hard to pin a good man down for long, however, and we reckon that, whatever the result tonight, Pirlo will create a number of chances and that Italy will score at least once from his creative probing.
With that in mind, we’re very tempted by Pirlo to grab an assist anytime at 7/2 and while we’re at it, we might even have a flutter on him to get the first one at 9/1.
With the amount of chances being created and goals being scored so far, that bet looks as attractive to us as Pirlo’s beard and believe us, that’s very high praise indeed.
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