biscotto

I had a great birthday- or compleanno!


I haven't been able to practice Italian as much as I would like right now, but I did learn a new idiom thanks to the Eurocup.


Italy, Spain, Croatia and Ireland are in a group together. Italy has drawn with Croatia and Spain, so they have 2 points in their group. Spain and Croatia have both drawn one match and won one match, leaving them both with 4 points. I was looking at an Italian newspaper that said Italy is waiting for the buscuit...I was very confused! So I did some research.


In football (soccer) biscuit -biscotto- means to cheat of fix a match. Apparently if Spain and Croatia draw their match, each scoring 2 goals, they can knock Italy out of the tournament. The term either comes from horse racing when horses were given drug-laced biscuits to alter their performance. Or it could be like an icecream sandwich where the 2 cookies (Spain and Croatia) can push in to squeeze out the icecream (Italy). 


Learn something new everyday! We will see if the biscotto happens tonight!