Blue moon on the rise

Just a few short weeks ago — which now feels more like many long years, — Ireland were sitting pretty and serene in their Montecatini base in Tuscany while no more than 30 miles away at their Coverciano training camp, Italy’s footballers were waking up to dawn raids, shock-horror headlines and all the trappings of another explosive calcio scandal.

Things weren’t much better on the pitch. One night in a restaurant in Montecatini most of the already disenchanted locals didn’t know where to look as the television showed the Azzurri being trounced 3-0 by Russia in a friendly, the chaotic nature of two of the goals suggesting that, whatever else Italian football was busy fixing at the time, it didn’t include the national team’s defence.

So who’d have thought Italy would go on to contest the final of Euro 2012 against holders Spain – and with a growing number of tipsters now leaning in the direction of the blue shirts ahead of tomorrow’s decider in Kiev. Mind you, we might well have thunk it, had we paid some attention to the lessons of history.