Final: Italy vs England

Eternitiy said:
Manchester United should have beaten Villarreal.
England should have beaten Italy.

The difference was the managers, as you've said. Emery and Mancini thoroughly outclassed Ole and Southgate despite the latter two having more talent at their disposal. It was so infuriating as a fan to watch powerless as your manager stands reactionless to a game that really should not have gone to penalties.
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Spot on two teams with better squads beaten by more astute management.
 
A
Turnip said:
Ironic choice of words considering Italy finished the game with 11 players on the pitch
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Awwwwww the salt, so lets see, needing a Pen/Blind ref to beat the Danes and needing Italian players sent off to beat the Italians? Keep the salt coming!
 
FreakyJim said:
England should've went for the second goal. They decided to try and keep it 1-0. And fecked it up, what a surprise.
Ridiculous stats : 20 - 6 shots, 1 shot on goal for the whole 120min.....
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The way they decided to try to defend 1-0 was the most shocking thing to me. Changing absolutely nothing when it became obvious that Italy were taking over. I'd have subbed Mount for Grealish in the 60th minute to hold on to the ball and draw a few fouls. Imagine my shock when Italy's pressure led to a goal :wenger:
 
Poor Rashford is going to get annihilated in the media for this, Southgate could have at least given him some minutes and why the hell didn’t Grealish get a penalty instead of Saka much older player.
 
Sphaero said:
I actually just checked, Sancho did not touch the ball once in the regular game, marking his pen as his first touch.

That is just appaling management and a freaking rookie mistake. You never send in players in high pressure situations if they have no play rythm. It is just mindboggling. Southgate thouroughly bottled this as this was far from his only mistake. Mancini completely exposed him in terms of coaching from the half time mark onwards. The latter actually adjusted tactics and formation to influence the game while the former just stood there and watched without any answer outside a gimmick at the the very end. No answer with that bench at his disposal, thats just criminal.
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Naturally people will focus on Rashford and Sancho for missing their penalties and not Southgate's god awful management of this game. What you have said is 100% correct. This failed final is all on Southgate and him alone.

No complaints from me as a United fan though. Rashford and Sancho were benched so likelihood of injuries were kept to a minimum for the new season.
 
Waynne said:
Nah it's alright. Southgate deserves the flak here. Can't expect these two players (who he's not picked all tournament) to come on and win them the game with 1 minute remaining.

The pressure must have been immense on both Sancho and Rashy.
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we have all lauded Southgate but to let players not warned up yet take pens and Bakary saka the 5th terrible , He needs to find himself and be much braver in the next tournament , it’s no good having great attacking players if you don’t use them and the 5 sub rule was there to help the attacking teams!
He’ll heal and then he has to be much braver next time !
 
laughtersassassin said:
Spot on two teams with better squads beaten by more astute management.
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Just look at who Italy had on at the end. They were missing their most attacking/best players - Spinazzola , Chiesa, Insigne.

But Mancini still made the subs and persevered with his tactical approach. Southgate was lost at the end when Englad had a chance to take it by the scruff of the neck in that second half of ET.
 
We had 34% possession.

look, either you accept we “gave” them that possession. Or you just accept that better teams have more of the ball.

we lost to the much much better team. On penalties. We did ok. It’s not complicated.
 
Unlucky England. Better team in the First Half but dropped off a bit in the second. England Should be very proud of that team , Fantastic achievement to reach a final and get within Touching Distance of winning it. For whats its worth I think England have a great squad and are definitely improving. Well done to Italy
 
Felt like Bonucci, Chiellini and Donnarumma had a perfect game.
England didn't have a second shot on goal bar the Shaw's one.
Overall.. deserved tournament win for Italy, they were consistently the most pleasing to watch.
I can't believe the likes of Southgate and Deschamps are managing EN&FR. Both are Second Division tier.
 
RedDevilQuebecois said:
The playing time is only one part of the equation. The penalty technique that uses stutter steps has been an embarrassment for many since it became mainstream. If you take penalties, you better go Shearer or Van Nistelrooy if you want to get good at those.
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Got any stats on that because with respect it sounds like bollox
 
So Southgate admits he chose the penalty takers based on their training data. How did it never cross his mind that in a real high pressure situation such as a final shootout, there might be other factors at play.

It makes sense that technical young players like Sancho and Saka might have no problem banging them in at training. Doesn't take a genius to figure out the pressure massively changes that equation.

I agree with an earlier poster that Centre Backs tend to be the best in shootouts. Just twat it with no nonsense.
 
rpitchfo said:
We had 34% possession.

look, either you accept we “gave” them that possession. Or you just accept that better teams have more of the ball.

we lost to the much much better team. On penalties. We did ok. It’s not complicated.
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I dont think anyone can doubt the better team won. But the game was winnable for England, that’s why there’s a lot of frustration tonight. I don’t blame any of the players, they’ve been screwed royally over by Southgate and his cowardly management.
 
Kane is a flat track bully and can only score against weaker opponents or opponents who are vulnerable.
 
rpitchfo said:
We had 34% possession.

look, either you accept we “gave” them that possession. Or you just accept that better teams have more of the ball.

we lost to the much much better team. On penalties. We did ok. It’s not complicated.
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No, we didn't. Our players stopped going forward. It was an instruction from the manager, which is made more clear as we have done exactly the same against lesser teams.

Italy are a good side, but the second half should never have been that comfortable for them. We had the players to beat them, but we didn't even try it.
 
sebsheep said:
On ITV they said Grealish hasn't taken one in a while and missed that, and Sterling has missed his last 3.
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I guess yeah but I’d still trust players who had been in the game over Rashford and Sancho coming in cold and Saka who looked a bag of nerves. But I guess you gotta go with your gut and choose the better penalty takers.

I think I read Saka hasn’t taken atop level penalty before though.
 
Italy deserved to win. It took them awhile to get over the early goal, but once they clicked into gear they dominated. At one stage they had 79% possession in the second half.

I thought Mount was awful. Grealish terrified the Italians when he finally came on for the final 20 mins of extra time.

England though created next to nothing after the opening goal, while Italy carved open plenty of opportunities.

Losing on penalties today was not cruel luck. The right team won.
 
Widow said:
You have to keep coming back though, right?

Is the Barca forum that shite? Or are you sick of the talk around how your club is falling on it's arse?
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Still crying? man you're going to dehydrate!

I remind you this is an Euro thread, piece of tears.

Again... let me engage you in a conversation relevant to this thread...
Italy deserved to win. Horrendous game by England. 8 defensive players every single minute of the tournament against teams with one fifth of their quality.
Football won tonight.
 
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