Hello and welcome. Once again we have an Italy special as its Euro 2004 time, and it’s on home turf. We come into this one as World Champions but our results have been hit and miss since then. We are going through a changing of the guard and trying find out who the next stars will be. Here is the squad for this tournament.

We are having a mini injury crisis upfront. I can’t seem to find any attacking midfielders either. We win our 2 friendlies 4-0 against Ghana & Bulgaria. So on we go to the Euros on home soil.

Awful start. It’s a dreary game and Norway win it in the 29th minute from a corner which Caprese nods past Buffon. Not the best start to a home comp.

We get a much needed win against Greece. It wasn’t brilliant but we did dominate for large periods. Daino knocked in a blocked shot and Totti scored with a beautiful lob over Vassiliou. Grammozis got a late goal but we managed to hang on.

We get knocked out in the group stages!! Totti and Del Piero have been really poor. Maldini scored from a corner in the 78th minute but it was ruled out by the ref. There will be riots tonight.

Confirmation of our failure.

Both teams from our group get knocked out in the quarters annoyingly. Bosnia are a real surprise package!

England crash out against France and Finland pull off a massive shock knocking Spain out! I had Spain down as favourites for this.

The dream is over for Bosnia and Finland. France vs Denmark will be a tasty final!

Blimey i wasn’t wrong! Denmark start like a house on fire but France come storming back to force penalties and nick the win and the trophy! Heartbreak for Denmark!

So that’s it for Euro 2004. A great tournament for the neutrals but a bit of a disaster for Italy. Join me next time as we plough through season 8 with Totti and his Roman friends. Ciao for now.