Italy/Australia 
My Pick: Italy
Italy play Guus Hiddink's Australia on Monday looking to exorcise the ghosts of the last edition where they lost to South Korea in the second round. South Korea at that time were incidentally coached by Hiddink and the Italians would not like to give him the pleasure of beating them twice in succesion.
Italy topped a relatively tough group,which included the Czechs,the United States and Ghana.They beat the Czechs and Ghana and split points with the United States. Their strong point has been their defence. Despite looking a bit suspect at times, the Italian back four conceded only one goal in three games and that too an own goal by Cristian Zaccardo. Upfront they have a plethora of options, including Luca Toni, Alberto Gilardino and Filippo Inzaghi as well as the crafty Alessandro Del Piero. The Italians will however miss the services of Alessandro Nesta, as the Milan centreback has not recovered from the groin injury he suffered against the Czechs. Marco Materazzi, who replaced him in the Czech game and performed his duties more than excellently, will therefore partner Fabio Cannavaro in defence. There will be no De Rossi, as the Roma medio has been awarded a four game ban. There are still lingering doubts whether Francesco Totti should play when he is not fully fit and not in the best of form, but the Italians know what he is capable of and he will start again.
The Socceroos have belied expectations by getting into the knockout stages when they were not expected to qualify for the event in the first place. They secured qualification at the expense of Croatia and Japan in their group behind the all mighty Brazilians. Their last group game was a high scoring draw 2-2 which saw Simunic being yellow carded thrice (Graham Poll error). It was quite a frantic game which saw many decisions going against the Aussies but quite a few with them too. Guus Hiddink's decision to field Zeljko Kalac did not have the necessary impact as the Milan goalie did not have a good game under the goal posts against Croatia. This means that Mark Schwarzer will be first choice against the Azzuri. Australia also have Blackburn midfielder Brett Emerton suspended and that's a huge loss for the Socceroos. If the game goes to penalties, then Kalac may be called to don the gloves, given his penalty saving record.
My verdict:
Australia have luck and Guus Hiddink on their side. Italy are expected to win and would like to avoid losing to a Guus Hiddink coached team again.
They will go all out and look to get in a few goals. I expect the Azzuri to win this.
