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Euro 2020 - General Chatter


IAmPappy

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England wins at home.  And another final at home. Only two finals for them, both at home, making them the only nation with that record.  They've come through a.weak group, beat a sorry German side (currently overrated and playing poorly) and then come through on the 'easy' side like they did in 2018.  

Playing at home will sure help them, but I really don't fancy their chances against Italy. But it's a final, and anything can happen so I wouldn't rule them out.  Bit as far as standout teams this Euro, they just aren't one of them yet, here they are!

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10 hours ago, RJB said:

Playing at home will sure help them, but I really don't fancy their chances against Italy.

I am obviously biased but I think England look the fitter of the two teams and Italy looked like they were running out gas against Spain (who were a shadow of their great teams). 

Denmark did really well with their own press and stood strong for 3/4 of the 90' and got a set-piece goal (Poor by Pickford?)  But offered absolutely nothing going forward from that point on and I can see the same with Italy.  Playing with two very good (again biased) holding midfielders means England can sit in there and wear you down and let their fitness finally tell the story.  Hate the way the goal was scored but England were the only team looking to win that game from about 70 minutes on. 

From an Italy perspective, Donnarumma's kicking was poor at times against Spain and he was not dealing with anything close the pace of Sterling and Saka/Sancho.  

I think it will be a great game and here's hoping Rice gets the winner. 

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Despite the extra days rest for Italy, I agree that England will likely be more rested than Italy. Until the commentators mentioned it in relation to Denmark, I hadn't realized what a huge lack-of-travel advantage England has over the rest of the teams in the tourney as they have only had to make one trip. It's actually a greater home field advantage than normal because usually when one team has home field advantage by hosting a tourney, everyone else is in the same country (or maybe a neighbouring one if it is co-hosted like it was in 2000 and 2008). But this time, one team effectively got home field advantage while everyone else keeps travelling across the continent so its not just getting the boost from the crowd & playing in comfortable circumstances, it's also an energy advantage which the commentators mentioned doomed the Danes. Plus the way Spain plays also helps to tire teams out, and England haven't had to face that while Italy did for 120 minutes. Everything seems to be going England's way, home field advantage, by-far-easier side of the bracket (akin to Portugal in 2016, who won it that year), they played the weakest of the 16 teams to advance out of the group stage in the Quarter Finals in Ukraine (yes, the Ukraine was weak, Kramer was right) and even got the only truly terrible Reffing decision in the whole tourney to go their way to advance to the final. They will be difficult to beat and I don't see the psychological "choke" challenges that they failed to overcome in the past being an issue here. Italy will have to earn it.

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9 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Playing with two very good (again biased) holding midfielders means England can sit in there and wear you down and let their fitness finally tell the story. 

As the game wore on, they gained more control and kept things ticking.

 

 

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That penalty against Denmark, if it were to happen on against them on Sunday we'd be hearing about it for generations.

No doubt Italy will need to be at their best. But the way England have been able to make Wembley their base has been an incredible advantage, well done @Gian-Luca for bringing that up. 

Italy have been a far superior team through the tournament though. England have been cagey and lacked the bite needed, whereas Italy have met every challenge with versatility in their style.  I pick Italy, however I know that England can rise up on their day. 

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10 hours ago, RJB said:

That penalty against Denmark, if it were to happen on against them on Sunday we'd be hearing about it for generations.

No doubt Italy will need to be at their best. But the way England have been able to make Wembley their base has been an incredible advantage, well done @Gian-Luca for bringing that up. 

Italy have been a far superior team through the tournament though. England have been cagey and lacked the bite needed, whereas Italy have met every challenge with versatility in their style.  I pick Italy, however I know that England can rise up on their day. 

I was thinking same about Italy, until the Spain game which I thought they would dominate. They were the inferior team for decent portions of the match, against a very mediocre side.  Maybe missing Spinazzola, but a great team adapts better.  Looked dead on their feet by the end.   All about (biased) opinions.   

On the penalty, not one.  But my Italian friends and I took the 2006 one against Australia, I guess.   

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Well most would say Italy has a slight edge. England has been tough defensively but the attack hasn't been stellar. Home advantage could be an unneeded pressure. Hope the refs let the teams decide it. 

I'm not too invested but I'll say Italy wins 1-0 over 90 minutes, I'm "perdicting" only because I'm not too invested. 

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Cross of St George out everywhere.  Songs in the neighbourhood already. We came here just after the Olympics were here and I can imagine this approaches that feeling if England win. Would love Canada to have something like this someday for a soccer game.

4-2 just like '66.  Rice scores a screamer.  Who knows, who cares, but the winner. 

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Italy was far superior, as expected.  England tried to park the bus, but couldn't execute.  That the match went to penalties was flattering to England, and ultimately to Southgate.  He was out of his league.

Did Harry Kane play?  Just another underwhelming performance from a massively overrated player.  Too bad there was not Tunisia or Panama in the tournament.  

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subbing players on in the 120th minute just to take pk's is a bad gamble, their first touch of the ball is a penal.

best team all tournament won, deserved champions. but this will end up being a forgettable tournament for me. wasn't played on a level playing field (travel), and too many minnow teams parking the bus.

oh, and the golden boot gets won by a guy who only scored 2 real goals, that's embarassing.

 

...and i'm half italian 😂

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Italy had the ball for the whole second half.  That was through stronger play on the ball, better ball recouperation and better first touches.  In other words,  the basic soccer skills.   Hence England had no scoring chnaces in the second half.  
 

Now, when a game goes to PK’s, its anybody game.   So england could have rightfully won.  But based on the play,  you could tell who was the better team.  Coaching had little to do the result .  

Edited by Free kick
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9 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Italy had the ball for the whole second half.  That was through stronger play on the ball, better ball recouperation and better first touches.  In other words,  the basic soccer skills.   Hence England had no scoring chnaces in the second half.  
 

Now, when a game goes to PK’s, its anybody game.   So england could have rightfully won.  But based on the play,  you could tell who was the better team.  Coaching had little to do with it in the result .  

Southgate showed such balls against Denmark to avoid pens and then let those same balls shrivel in ET under the biggest pressure.

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10 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Italy had the ball for the whole second half.  That was through stronger play on the ball, better ball recouperation and better first touches.  In other words,  the basic soccer skills.   Hence England had no scoring chnaces in the second half.  
 

Now, when a game goes to PK’s, its anybody game.   So england could have rightfully won.  But based on the play,  you could tell who was the better team.  Coaching had little to do with it in the result .  

i thought england had a good bout of possession between around the 75th and 105th minutes, italy was having trouble with their quickness, but italy fairly dominated the rest of the game.

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I'd be curious to know some of the analytics for the game, because the surface stats like possession and shots really make England look bad. But perhaps there's details that I'm missing. 

That's another host to lose then Euros in the final. 

As for England, the world cup isn't there, so they don't run much risk of a final again. Maybe they'll host another euros, or get WC 2030. 

 

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39 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Coaching had little to do the result .  

Well, Southgate had subs that could change the game and he failed to put them on. Rashford and Sancho are two examples but he saved them for the end .he was acting for penalties, but then they both failed at what they were on to do. They weren't in the game, and that's his fault.  

To me, Southgate is a lot of Herdman: he feels good and relies on the talent of his players rather than his coaching. 

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57 minutes ago, JohnnyFranchise said:

oh, and the golden boot gets won by a guy who only scored 2 real goals, that's embarassing.

Schick scored five as well, just the one penalty. Kane won golden boot in 2018 thanks to penalties. They all count. As we saw today, not always easy to score them. 

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9 minutes ago, RJB said:

Schick scored five as well, just the one penalty. Kane won golden boot in 2018 thanks to penalties. They all count. As we saw today, not always easy to score them. 

Yah but ronaldo gets the award because of the tiebreaker, which should be least penalties scored. 

As someone who's scored a lot of penals in my life (and missed a few 😎), I don't even think they should count towards golden boot standings at all.

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England took advantage of some ball-watching on Di Lorenzo's part (probably the Italian player with the least-amount of big game experience for club & country, he was playing in Serie C a few years back & had an awful first 15 minutes  probably nerves getting to him). In a way though scoring so early might have been the ultimate downfall as they seemed to get into a defend-first mentality too early and once Italy scored it never seemed likely that England was going to get the winner. There's something to be said for bringing on two subs at the last possible minute just to take a PK with the first touch of the match, both of whom missed. You might want to at least bringing them on for five or six minutes first.

Donnaruma's complete lack of celebration over the winning PK save gave me cause for confusion, as though I had miscounted the scoring or he knew he left the line early or something.

I understand that Bonucci is trolling both a current teammate and a former teammate with this post-match video, but I haven't actually seen the original versions so am unfamiliar with the source material he is apparently mocking:

 

 

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