Final: Italy vs England

Bepi said:
Dear @Penna , patron of all the Caf n00bs still wandering in this forum’s basement, May you please get this compatriot, albeit an Inter fan, his tenth like asap and make him a full member, please? It could be his last couple of days on these shores and he deserves to go on a high, in case we all get banned. Thank you and “L’Italia chiamo’, si’!! “. :wenger:
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@Bepi, done and done. Ciao ragazzo. :)
 
KirkDuyt said:
I was kind of neutral, but the incessant whinging about England in our media has put me in their corner.

Italy fecking invented defensive, game killing shithousery, but now that they decided to attack a bit for all of 5 matches, they're suddenly God's gift to sportsmanship and the worlds embassy of attractive football?

And Chiellini isn't fecking Ghandi, he's a play acting, cheating twat who somehow should be respected because he's going bald and has a degree in business administration?

Oh and, screaming you national anthem in such an off key way my fecking brain starts hemorrhaging isnt passionate, it's daft.

Get the feck out of here. It's coming home.
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No it's not. London or Rome, but not Amsterdam
 
ShinjiNinja26 said:
To all the non English CAF residents how would you rather England lose, in the most controversial fashion possible or just a straight up hammering?
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I want a hammering, but without any United players doing badly. So goals from Italy’s left side please.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I had to remind one of my more neanderthal friends that cheering anyone other than England in this final means cheering for Italy. And any real Scottish football fan should remember that Italy cheated us out of Euro 2008 qualification with this absolute farce. Seriously, just watch it.



I still can't believe it.

Go and smash the cnuts.
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That's ridiculous. Odd that I lived in the UK back then and never heard of that, must have whinged for no more than a couple of days about it.
 
Bepi said:
Dear @Penna , patron of all the Caf n00bs still wandering in this forum’s basement, May you please get this compatriot, albeit an Inter fan, his tenth like asap and make him a full member, please? It could be his last couple of days on these shores and he deserves to go on a high, in case we all get banned. Thank you and “L’Italia chiamo’, si’!! “. :wenger:
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I'm in Rome now and I want to tell you that I have tickets to the final at Wembley. I spent my formative years in England and made some of the best friendships there but I decided to watch the final from Italy because Italy had given me any other countries have not, my second family. I'll be rooting so hard for your nation even though I have so much money staked on an outright England win before the tournament. How do you say football is coming Rome in Italian? Or rather what is your version of football is coming home in Italian? I need to take the piss out of all my English mates who are giving me grief because Die Mannshaft was knocked out by them. No Germans care even after we used to beat them so many times in the past but they are still going on about the 5-1 in Munich and now the recent loss at Wembley. Please beat England tomorrow or else I'll never hear the end of it!
 
Start Rashford and surprise the Italians by starting Bellingham in place of Mount, though it may be a gamble too far as Mount is tactically more mature.
 
Tapori said:
Start Rashford and surprise the Italians by starting Bellingham in place of Mount, though it may be a gamble too far as Mount is tactically more mature.
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Mount is a million per cent to start, I'm actually surprised at a few leaving him out as he knows Jorginho's strengths and weaknesses from training with him every day so you'd want him on Jorginho's toes right from kick off.

Would love Bellingham curveball but far more likely to be Henderson and he'd come in for Phillips.
 
Don't think Italy have rotated the whole tournament beside their final group game. I wonder if Roberto might spring a surprise with his lineup? Everyone is correctly saying that the Italian midfield is levels above England's in terms of technique but in terms of physicality England have the edge. I wonder how lenient this ref is?

Still think the wingers/full back battle will be the most important with Sterling and Chiesa key for both teams.
 
I don't see us making any changes tbh, expect an unchanged 11. There's constantly been a call for changes, but Southgate has barely changed it all tournament. Most changes he made were enforced or due to a change of formation. Aside from that the only change basically has been Saka to take Foden's place.

I think I slight favour Italy, though I'd rather have played them than Spain who I could have seen totally dominating us with the style we play. I do fear us getting overrun in midfield vs Italy, and not pressing the likes of Jorginho and Verratti enough, allowing them to dictate the game.
 
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RazorOz said:
I don't see us making any changes tbh, expect an unchanged 11. There's constantly been a call for changes, but Southgate has barely changed it all tournament. Most changes he made were enforced or due to a change of formation. Aside from that the only change basically has been Saka to take Foden's place.

I think I slight favour Italy, though I'd rather have played them than Spain who I could have seen totally dominating us with the style we play. I do fear us getting overrun in midfield vs Italy, and not pressing the likes of Jorginho and Verratti enough, allowing them to dictate the game.
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I don't know. I'd expect Southgate to go 3-5-2 and England to focus on neutralising the Italian midfield. Then it'll be for the wing backs to carry whatever isn't handled through long passes, and make the difference. Defensive lines and forward lines are about even, or perhaps slightly in England's favor. With Spinazzola out, England has much better wing backs than Italy though.

But who knows, perhaps Mancini does something unexpected.
 
The question is, will winning the Euros make England the footballing greatest nation on planet earth once more?
 
abundance said:
Thanks for the interesting question, which I'll happily answer with an uncalled-for, obnoxious off-topic essay.


Making some pasta is a straightforward idea that surfaces the very moment you have fire, cookware, and flour.

Just mix flour, water, and optionally a proteic binder like eggs, into a unleavened dough that's then portioned into whatever bite-sized shape or clump to be boiled or steamed. Even a troglodite can come up with that and oh! that's yummy!

Noodles, maccheroni, lasagna, dumplings, gnocchi, spätzle, cous cous... it's all the same stuff, and it's deeply rooted in many traditional dishes everywhere.

So, if it's true that agriculture was first developed in the fertile crescent, then pasta most probably first appeared somewhere around there and was then exported or reinvented anywhere agriculture was exported or reinvented.

China has remarkably ancient archaeological proofs of existence of proper miàn noodles, just as ancient Greek literature has mentions of their own ("itria"), just as a passage in the Talmud debates whether unleavened dough is still kosher if boiled...

Dried pasta was probably a Mediterranean or middle-eastern development as it requires durum (hard wheat) which is endemic in the sub-saharian region but wasn't available in east Asia.

So, what the italians have done exactly? Well, for whatever reason, they simply developed an obsession for pasta during modern cuisine era (that is, after the influx of new ingredients from the Americas), and so, alongside a lot of new recipes with fresh homemade pasta, they perfectioned dry pasta manufacturing with the "trafilatura al bronzo" (extrusion with bronze tooling) method.
Creating this sturdy dry pasta with virtually infinite shelf life which comes in so many cute shapes, stays "al dente" in the core, and loves to bind its rough surface to the sauce (the latter feature is a bit lost with very smooth contemporary industrial pasta extruded with teflon, but I digress).

So, well, definitely italians didn't invent pasta, they simply put lots of love into some specific variants of it.
We did invent the four-pronged fork to eat spaghetti though - that, we did.
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Cracking post!
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I had to remind one of my more neanderthal friends that cheering anyone other than England in this final means cheering for Italy. And any real Scottish football fan should remember that Italy cheated us out of Euro 2008 qualification with this absolute farce. Seriously, just watch it.



I still can't believe it.

Go and smash the cnuts.
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Aye, definitely should've been to a penalty to England there.
 
Offsideagain said:
2-1 England after extra time.
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My only hope is that the game doesn't get decided by penalties because no one wants that, especially England fans, who have a fear of penalty shootouts embedded in our DNA through decades of pain and misery. I mean, the mere thought of penalties is enough to make your average England fan question their will to live, but having to witness one that decides the winner of the EURO's final after 55 years in the waiting? Pfffft, forget about it. Lives will be lost. Let's hope their sacrifices are not in vain.
 
Never seen such a match thread with 19 pages the day before kick off and I don't think I've seen one lineup prediction!

Think 10 of Southgate's 11 are guaranteed to start, which is the same starters from the semi minus Saka who is a question mark. Could go with Saka or Sancho RW, or even Foden, or Grealish LW with Sterling moving to RW... Or a back 5 with Trippier coming in...
 
Trequarista10 said:
Never seen such a match thread with 19 pages the day before kick off and I don't think I've seen one lineup prediction!

Think 10 of Southgate's 11 are guaranteed to start, which is the same starters from the semi minus Saka who is a question mark. Could go with Saka or Sancho RW, or even Foden, or Grealish LW with Sterling moving to RW... Or a back 5 with Trippier coming in...
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To be fair it was started as a jinx thread before the semi final. in regards to the match it’s the middle of the pitch I’m worried about as Veratti and Jorginho will dominate Rice and Phillips. If England can find a way to get a hold in midfield we’ve got a great chance.
 
The scary thing about Italy is Veratti hasn't really been at his best. If he turns it up tomorrow, then that midfield will completely dominate the game, especially with Jorginho and Barella. Heck even without him the latter two will probably still control the game, and that's not even mentioning Locatelli. Thankfully for England, Italy have Immobile up front.
 
Italy will suffer a lot sterling, saka and kane. Maguire on set pieces

But advantage in the mid verratti/jorginho/barella vs rice/philipps/mount

Stones vs Immobile can be a problem

No idea what will happen with Insigne vs Walker, Chiesa vs Shaw

England favorites (principally for playing home and more squad dept) 55/65%.
 
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My wife is English and naturally I’m hoping for an England victory. I’m from Melbourne, Australia and there’s a strong Italian contingent here, so the mood will be interesting.
 
Sunday has arrived

after 4 weeks of tournament competition

it’s home time this evening
 
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