Day 7 | Slovenia vs Serbia | Denmark vs England | Spain vs Italy

Don't really see what our game plan is tonight, Spain are playing through us constantly. Hope we can hold on for a late snatch and grab.
 
Real lack of quality up front for Italy
The Italian midfield has created next to nothing. I don’t blame their attackers. Spain is completely dominating the game. Italy would need to win the old way, if they can still do it. Be strong defensively and score a goal when you have that odd chance.
 
Italy always show up and defend brilliantly, even if their back line is short of household names. There’s something about Italian defenders, that when it matters, there’s no one better in the business.
 
When you think how Spain used to play, successful but a bit boring.
So would you say their managers put a stamp on things? I’ve always remembered them being a pretty good possession based team. They’re quite lucky that they have wonderful players that are really good on the ball and can play that way.
 
Isn’t the general consensus that Fabian Ruiz has underwhelmed since joining PSG? He’s looked good this tournament

Yep, he’s underwhelmed at PSG but then again, Enrique hasn’t set him up to succeed. Ruiz was a baller since his Napoli days.
 
What’s even worse is he could try Wharton in the role. Instead, he opts for a clueless RB and then a clueless ball-carrying, average passing player as the back up.


Southgate has over a billion in talent at his disposal and is pining for Kalvin Phillips. There are no words.
Just saw this, absolutely mental take and should be a stackable offense.
 
Chose to play for his parent’s homeland, Ghana. I don’t think Spain fancied him to be honest because it wasn’t until 2022 he got capped for Ghana, almost 6 yrs after he made his first friendly appearance for Spain’s senior team.

I think the Spanish FA learned their lesson with Nico and capped him early. The modern game requires technique in addition to athleticism. Yamal and Nico give Spain the pace on the wings and ability play far more vertically.
Username checks out.

Family?
 
I quite like this version of Spain.

Less afraid to go direct or shoot from range, rather than the other iterations we've seen for the last decade where they just try and fail to be the Xavi/Iniesta side while boring everybody to death in the process.
 
I understand Le Normand and Laporte are both half french but we should stop to try to hit them all the time
 
Barella is one of the elite technical midfielders in the world…..

He isn't, he is a very good all rounder but he isn't elite from a technical standpoint. There is quite obviously several gaps between him and the likes of Totti, Verratti, Pirlo, Del Piero, Baggio, Cassano and many others.
 
So would you say their managers put a stamp on things? I’ve always remembered them being a pretty good possession based team. They’re quite lucky that they have wonderful players that are really good on the ball and can play that way.
I like people being able to keep the ball, but not just passing it about for the sake of it. You think about the fact we have Harry Kane who scores for fun at club level, Spain never seemed to have a prolific scorer, Villa and Torres. However they seemed to be able to get the results. Good coaching.
 
It's a toss up between the two tbh. However if Kane is playing, there needs to be runners out wide. There were too many players who wanted the ball at their feet
Yep Gordon and Saka if Kane plays. To be honest I think Gordon has to play, the left wing was tragic. Weird looking at who is available neither Rashford or Grealish are there.
 
Germany typically struggles against Spain. The last time that Germany beat Spain in a competitive match was… Euro 1988.

Based on what I have seen from both teams, I expect Germany not to win, certainly not “handedly”.

Meh, those types of stats aren’t worth much for me.

As for what we have actually seen in this tournament so far: I feel like Spain is doing a lesser version of their high press, which Croatia and even Italy at times are able to play through. Because it isn’t as systemically good at what you’d see on a club level by certain teams. For NT tournament you can get away with it, but inevitably you’ll run into teams that will bypass that press and punish you. For me, Germany and to a lesser extent France are those teams. Also think the German defense with Rudiger and Tah should be able to handle the likes of Morata. Whereas the German attack patterns I think will overwhelm the Spain defense which hasn’t looked good so far (Croatia really sucked at finishing).

Certainly a match I’d like to see.
 
This game would be a lot better with a less weak ref.

Fair play on booking Rodri though, tbf.
 
Giving suspensions for 2 yellows is so stupid. No other sport does anything like it.
 
Feels like a 0-0 kind of game

Neither team taking their chances.