Italy playmaker Andrea Pirlo chips in with attack on ‘conservative …

In an act of mockery, and because grandfather Pirlo could not
speak Italian well, a local official told him that his name would
be “Pirlo” because the word is close to “pirla”, roughly equivalent
to “dickhead” in modern Italian. It was a cruel trick to play but
the name, which is unusual to Italian ears, remained. Two
generations on, however, the joke is not on the Pirlos anymore. The
joke yesterday at Italy’s Casa Azzurri HQ here in Krakow was on the
English.

The Italians have moved on from their victory on penalties
against England on Sunday night towards tomorrow’s semi-final
against Germany in Warsaw. Yesterday, however, on the occasions
that the discussion returned to the game in Kyiv, Pirlo was
unsparing when it came to England’s performance. He thought that
Roy Hodgson’s team played without imagination or ambition and got
what they deserved.

Pirlo appears considerably older than his 33 years and is, to
look at, a strange mix of Alan Rickman and Javier Bardem. He has
been around long enough that he does not worry too much about who
he upsets and his analysis of England was not one from the school
of diplomacy.

“England played in a very conservative and careful way,” Pirlo
said. “They were sitting back for all the match like Chelsea did in
the Champions League final. They tried to keep that same shape. As
far as they were concerned, getting as far as the penalty shoot-out
was already a good result for them.

“There have been many games in the past when I’ve had as much
possession as against England. In football it happens. The
difference is against Germany I expect [Mesut] Ozil to be a great
threat in and around the areas where I am playing, while on Sunday,
[Wayne] Rooney stayed further up the field. Ozil will play in the
same areas, although he will not necessarily do a man-marking job
on me.

“We have to take advantage of our quality and our technique.
This is the only way we can win the semi-final. Unlike England,
Germany pose many threats to our defence.”

The outrageously cheeky penalty that Pirlo chipped past Joe Hart
with his team trailing in the shoot-out is known in Italian as a
cucchiaio and according to the Italian reporters in Krakow
yesterday, the midfielder mastered the art as a teenager at
Brescia’s academy. Pirlo, as he had done after the game, did not
try to dismiss the significance of the way in which he scored.

“It was really relevant to the match and our win. This changed
the course of the game. In my opinion, Hart seemed to be very
confident in himself and, scoring against him this way, it did seem
to be a psychological blow. I needed to do something to beat him.
Penalties are a very personal thing.

“When you have to shoot a penalty you have to be confident in
yourself. I didn’t say anything special to my team-mates. We have
the same character and determination as Juventus. We are united as
a group.”

In an Italy team that has struggled for goals at times, Pirlo
has become the star. Yesterday, a member of the Italian media said
that his naturally non-communicative nature suggested that perhaps
he was a bit mad and that might be some kind of explanation for why
he took such a risky penalty.

“Look it was not folly. It was not madness,” Pirlo said. “I felt
like doing that thing at that moment in time. I don’t think I was
mad when I hit this penalty. I just had this moment of inspiration
before I took it.”

Pirlo has been around for years. He won the World Cup in 2006 as
well as three Serie A titles, including last season’s with
Juventus, and two Champions League titles but he is currently the
man of the moment at Euro 2012. Not bad for a player who was given
a free transfer by Milan last summer when his request for a new
three-year deal was turned down.

It is true that the space that England gave him on Sunday
contributed to the strength of his performance. The Germans will
not be so generous. There was even talk yesterday of Pirlo winning
the Ballon d’Or, which he dismissed out of hand on the basis that
“Ronaldo and Messi score 60-70 goals a season, one of those two
will win it every time.”

Nevertheless, this is some encore for Pirlo to a brilliant
career and he is determined to finish in style. “We have watched
all the Germany games,” he said yesterday. “They are a great team.
They always go all the way to the end. But we started training
today and we know how to beat them. We know they are difficult team
to beat. But we know we can do it.”