Group of Death Halftime Bullets

-Pretend you are the manager of the French national team.  You have a ridiculous wealth of world class players at your disposal.  Could you possibly put your team in a situation where both Francois Clerc (backup at Lyon) and Jean-Alain Boumsong (chased out of Newcastle) are in your back line?  Remember that Domenech did not even name Phillipe Mexes, Bacary Sagna, or Mathieu Flamini to his roster.  Ol' Dom doesn't need to consult the stars to know his days are numbered.

-The Dutch are starting 10 different players then they played on Friday (only Engelaar is still in), yet their front line still consists of Van Persie, Robben, and Huntelaar.  Wow.  

-The French need to score two with ten men and hold the Italians scoreless in order to advance.  The only way that is realistically happening is if some Italian gets a red card.  Pirlo in particular needs to be very careful defensively.  Donadoni might even think about replacing him in order to be safe.

-The amount of Italian complaining if the Dutch lose to Romania would truly be epic.  It is ironic that the country that has voted Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister three times is so quick to complain about corruption and conspiracy.  The Romanians have seen most of the early chances, so prepare for some serious Azzuri whining.