If Wales can beat Belgium 3-1, Italy can beat Germany 2-1.
The new Italians, who include a handful of veterans, play as ferociously as Antonio Conte, their mentor, used to play.
No team in Euro 2016 has been as tactically astute or as combative.
They are a ferocious unit who deploy themselves intelligently and wait patiently for the chance to slice through you. Their senior players are ultra-motivated because it’s the last big trophy they can win and the others, who are not as young as you might think, have been round the block on the way here and are extremely keen to make the most of this opportunity.
Conte’s side can deploy all the dark arts, the verbal abuse, the sly shirt-tugging, as well as a range of accidentally-on-purpose fouls.
And they can break at speed while hardly wasting a step, let alone a pass.
You’ve guessed it: The new Azzurri impress me, big time.
In their first game they beat Belgium 2-0 and Bonucci hit them with that javelin-pass from the halfway line, finding the run of Giaccherini, whose cool finish was exemplary.
So that’s Conte’s new Italy : a rugged squad of warrior-technicians..
Graziano Pelle is a big physical specimen, according to Rio Ferdinand, who’s played against him.
Fellow striker Eder, chunky, fast and explosive, is a raider who can go on his own and score.
While half the Azzurri have won lots of big medals, the other half have come up the hard way due to the conservatism of Serie A, where coaches don’t trust young players and Sporting Directors loan them out to Serie B or the regional league clubs below that.
At the start of 2011/12, Eder, Candreva, Parolo and Giaccherini were all playing for Cesena, who got relegated from Serie A. That was a nasty experience but, four years down the line, Euro 2016 is a reward for theirperseverance, hunger and ambition.
Germany? You know all about them.
For me Mario Gomez isn’t the centre forward to break down the three-centreback fortress were know as BarzagliBonucciChiellini.
In a quarter-final like this, those three will stand as tall as the mighty Brandenburg Gates.
However, maybe Germany are too good not to score.
If so, we’re looking at a 2-1 rather than a 1-0.
I liked Croatia a lot when they outplayed Spain but the Croatians lacked experience.
These battle-hardened Italians have a lean & hungry look and strike me as a team that will go all the way.