Two countries. Two world cup 2006 finalist. France and Italy.

5 recent Italy friendlies - against Swiss goalless draw
____________________against Netherland goalless draw
____________________against Sweden 1- 0 win
____________________against Cameroon goalless draw
____________________against Mexico 1-2 loss

4 recent France friendlies - against Spain 0-2 loss
____________________against Costa Rica 2-1 win
____________________against Tunisia 1-1 draw
____________________against China 0-1 loss

In 5 games Italy managed a miserable 2 goals, 3 draws, a win and a loss each. While that record doesn't seems all that bad(unbeaten in 4/5 games), its pretty much obvious this current Italy cannot score.

In the 4 games till now, France managed to get more losses than wins. A much inferior record compared to Italy. With the talent that they have, (with all due respect to the opponents bar Spain) they should win and win comfortably. With 1/2 of their recent games ended in losses, the last one coming against China(What?!), are they in a more precarious position?

Have your say...

Wouldn't worry at all about Italy, they never perform their best until it really counts. They certainly have the players to go all the way in the World Cup.
France on the other hand.... Think they might struggle

Doesn't even matter because Italy has an easy group so they will make it out. While France has a harder group and will find it hard to make it out

Domenech = Disaster    But we never know

Hmm.... Italy always go as underdogs, and emerge victorious. And moreover Lippi isn't as f****d up as Domenech. And, Italy is in an easy group, so getting knocked out will be almost incredible.
So I'd say France

Italy won the last world cup so I would expect them to be a treat coming into this world cup but for some reason they haven't shown the strength needed to be even considered a a finalist. If you ask 20 who will win the world cup maybe one will say italy. They need to show the strength that brazil and spain show. Just the name should strike fear into the other team players but they fell way below expectations to me

Great question- one that many followers of either team are probably pondering, given the fact that we were both finalists 4 years ago. Both teams are in dire straits- no creativity, aging players, stubborn coaches- all pretty sad. I know that it's hard not to read into warm-up games leading into a tournament, but with some of these bigger teams, you almost have to. Italy are notorious for having slow starts and trying to finish strong, and France have found ways to stick around in tournaments when they haven't had much talent.

Staying away from history or cliches and going based off of recent games though, I would have to say France are looking pretty poor right now. It's almost like Domenech refuses to make adjustments and expects that the players that he has, albeit veterans, will make the necessary adjustments on the field. Lippi has tried experimenting with different players and formations, and although the results haven't come, he has tried working everyone into games.... I do expect both teams to perform poorly though

I think they are in a similar situation, where they have two ageing teams.
I don't think enough young talent has been used by either nation now for a period of years, and now they are paying for that mistake.
They both need a fresh more youthful team, and get rid of the dinosaurs

Domenech - Looks to the stars for players he picks and drops. The mans a idiot. France have no chance in my opinion.

Lippi - Good manager and Italy are underdogs and do come out on top. They won't win this year though. But there do better than france.

Like Tony said they need to invest in youth

Italy always had a experienced squad with couple of youngsters. I think its just the way they operate

Italy doesn't seem to pose much of an attacking threat this year, however they look like when the games that matter come around, they will be solid in the back. France on the other hand is much trickier. They just look bad all over the pitch. They can't play as a team.... They don't know how to. They also really don't seem confident at all. At least italy can eak out 0-0 draws.... France doesn't even seem to have a cohesive back line and their only saving grace will be hugo lloris. However with the players that they have, anything can happen

I don't think Italy is too old, only 9 players out of 23 are aged 30 or above, which is a good deal in my opinion. Experience also matters in such a tough competition: I saw many teams in the past celebrating their low average age before the WC, and then going home at the end of the group stage.
Also, I would not put too much emphasis on the results of the friendlies. There is an evident motivational mismatch in a friendly between Italy and Mexico, or between France and China. There's too much noise in these results (athletic condition, motivation, chance, ....) to extract some relevant information for the WC.

I don't think Italy is among the top 3-4 teams, but everyone knows how hard is to beat them in a knock-out round. From 1990 to 2006, Italy always reached at least the round of 16: World Champions in 2006, 3 times eliminated after penalties (1990, 1994, 1998) and 1 time through a golden goal (2002). Hard as hell!

France is in a bad situation after the 2006 world cup I watched them and I knew they where in trouble. Italy too, but I think France is having it worse, bad manager, handball thing, and they just lost to China

I think France is in a bad state....The players seem to lack cohesion and will to win, especially because of the way they qualified and the tactics that Domenech uses....
Italy has an aging squad and their own problems but I feel like France is in a worse state....

This Malouda interview seems to indicate problems that run deep in the squad....

I'd say france! Prob come second in their group then be beat in last 16, italy on the other hand I think won't win it, but theyll be a benchmark for the best. Just like they were in the euros.... They did give spain a massive run for their money after all,