I did warn the Elephants they had little chance of further progression, but somehow Rollin' Brolin was still in the team, there was no real balance on the left, and they generally lacked pace up top. Also their manager kept confusing his players by changing the system, which gave Donadoni the almighty hump I can tell you.
Costly stuff, and not helped by Ronaldo, I would wager not for the first time in his life, having Kohler for breakfast and easily winning the pieboy contest against Brolin, a splendid enough looking player if you like the cherubic style, but who never really moved all that much nor scored enough. Like many of us, he was never as effective without his Dahlin beside him.
Lies aside, this proved a fairly routine victory for the Selfies, who won the match by dominating the midfield and starving the Elephants of possession. The match also featured an especially dodgy display from Ambrosini who kept giving away needless free-kicks and generally having trouble containing Djorkaeff and Del Piero, who back in the 90s used to drop into the hole more often than a Nick Faldo putt. It was one of these free-kicks that broke the deadlock, with Del Piero curling one in from range. Funny, in a way, it was through the middle that the Selfies were winning the battle, but the Sideburns that broke through.
The Elephants recovered a bit after that and there was good stuff down their horribly unbalanced flanks from 'The Sparrow' Pessotto and from Donadoni, when they could get him the ball, but their crosses were all calmly headed away by a fine looking trio of Peaky Blinders in Montero, Ferrara and Thuram, and Van Basten was resorted to trying worldies from way out that were sadly off target. Good job too, with Taffarel in goal. Their bubble was burst even further just before half time, when Djorkaeff fed Ronaldo and the Brazilian, always grateful for such things, smashed the Selfies' second in.
There was a brief sniff of a comeback in the second half after a royal feck up between Taffarel and Carboni. Evani played a fine ball over the top, but Carboni had switched off, and despite all the shouts of 'Amadeo! Amadeo!' from his colleagues, Carboni seemed cloth-eared, perhaps assuming his team mates were all just singing along to the 80s Falco classic. Taffarel rushed out of his goal too late to try to clear the ball but Donadoni got there first and was left with a simple finish. 2-1, and a chance for the Elephants.
The comeback did not last long, though. After one of their many cumbersome attacks broke down when Brolin basically couldn't be arseholed with trying to run onto a Stankovic through ball, Pessotto was caught upfield and Fuser made headway down the right and placed a fine cross onto Ronaldo's head for the Selfies' third. The win was then sealed when Djorkaeff's outswinging corner was headed in by Montero, remarkably still on the field despite a couple of tasty tackles on Van Basten. The Elephants were not very happy about it, but then they seem like a bit of a miserable bunch anyway. I blame their tinkering manager.
4-1 final score. Well done Selfies! We're all looking forward to your semi-final when something Brazilian about your team is bound to be the deciding factor - but will it be Ronaldo's goals, Taffarel's feckups, or maybe just the way Del Piero keeps his pubic bush?
. That's mostly on the basis of his Sampdoria season as he was notoriously inconsistent at Inter from memory (and I had a gander on an Inter forum out of interest and the consensus was the same). The competition isn't especially stiff though, as I didn't rate Jonk highly, Stankovic was a promising talent but barely established, and I wasn't a big fan of peak Ambrosini much less this young version.
