Italy/Ukraine 
My Pick: Italy
On paper, according to pundits, Italy have the easiest quarterfinal draw. They play Oleg Blokhin's Ukraine for a spot in the last 4.But winning is easier said than done, given that Ukraine have raised their game after that demoralising 4-0 defeat to Spain in their opening game. They have not conceded a goal after that. They eliminated Koebi Kuhn's ta lented Swiss team on penalties in the round of 16.
Ukraine will be however miss influential forward Andrei Voronin after the Bayer Leverkusen player suffered a thigh injury in the game against the Swiss. This adds to the responsibilty on Chelsea forward Andrei Shevchenko and Shakhtar's Andrei Vorobei, who plays behind him.Ex Milan forward Shevchenko has spent a lot of his playing career in Italy and knows the Italian squad well, especially his Milan teammates. As captain he will expected to lead from the front in this crunch game. The Ukranians are in hitherto uncharted territory with this being their first appearance in a World Cup as an independent nation.
Italy meanwhile are as experienced as their opponents are inexperienced in the World Cup. They needed an injury time penalty from Francesco Totti to see off the challenge of Guus Hiddink coached Australia. That penalty has raised many eyebrows as Lucas Neill never brought Grosso down. Marco Materrazi got sent off in the game against the Aussies after a brilliant game against the Czechs and he will miss this game. So will Alessandro Nesta.That means Lippi will have a bit of a headache as to who will partner captain Fabio Cannavaro in the heart of defence.
The Italians will also miss Daniele De Rossi who is still serving a ban for his foul agianst Brian Mcbride. Udinese striker Vincenzo Iaquinta is a doubt for this game after suffering a muscular problem. Gennaro Gattuso,Fabio Grosso and Gianluca Zambrotta are all on yellow cards. This means the Italians do have more injury and suspension worries than Ukraine but they have a bench which is more than capable of replacing the players mentioned above. Oleg Blokhin however does not have a luxury of riches to choose from however.
My verdict:
Tough game; Ukraine have nothing to lose and Italy have all to play for. The winner of the game will play either Germany or Argentina in the semfinals and I suspect it
will be the Italians who will go through. Ukraine's inexperience might tell at this level. Italy to win this by a margin of a goal or two.
