ENGLAND 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 vs 🇮🇹 ITALY - EUROS FINAL - Official Matchday Thread ⚽️

[vulva]

I’m just glad I’ve got an England team worth watching. In the last 40 years, we’ve had the odd blip of decency that has entertained us. There were times I’d have turned the TV off, or forgot they were playing. I quite like this lot. I like Southgate. 
 

They’ve made international football interesting again, in a football world dominated and more or less ruined by money and the Premier League. Some of the comments on here are so predictable. It can only be kids, or drinks with short memories. All about blame, and that’s the culture we live in. The lads who missed the penalties should be praised for having the balls for taking one. I remember Euro 96 when the ‘Guvnor’, Paul Ince didn’t fancy it. 

[Sambo89]

6 hours ago, Dexter Morgan said:

Stuart Pearce 

Chris Waddle 

 

both tried that 

And I won't slate em for it. Theyve tried to take a good penalty, stuttered run up, trying to trick keeper into diving so you can go the other way, its bolłocks! Decide where you're putting the ball, step up and hit it. 

[Doctor Duran]

7 minutes ago, Sambo89 said:

And I won't slate em for it. Theyve tried to take a good penalty, stuttered run up, trying to trick keeper into diving so you can go the other way, its bolłocks! Decide where you're putting the ball, step up and hit it. 

TBF probs 9/10 it would go in.

 

The pressure on those young lads was immense and they stood up and took them.

Whether it was right for Southgate to expect them to take them,  but it would have all been pre-planned and they would

have known they was taking them.

 

Close margins - England did well, not exceptional.  Be a lot tougher in Qatar, but hopefully this team will have a good WC qualifying run and grow as a team.

 

 

[Brissy-owl]

what a tournament,  brilliant to be in a final, never great to lose any game on penalties, hopefully they dont get abused by the online pond life, I wish I got that emotional for Wednesday that's for sure, bring on the world cup!

[Pablo Bonvin]

6 minutes ago, vulva said:

I’m just glad I’ve got an England team worth watching. In the last 40 years, we’ve had the odd blip of decency that has entertained us. There were times I’d have turned the TV off, or forgot they were playing. I quite like this lot. I like Southgate. 
 

They’ve made international football interesting again, in a football world dominated and more or less ruined by money and the Premier League. Some of the comments on here are so predictable. It can only be kids, or drinks with short memories. All about blame, and that’s the culture we live in. The lads who missed the penalties should be praised for having the balls for taking one. I remember Euro 96 when the ‘Guvnor’, Paul Ince didn’t fancy it. 

Absolutely 100%. Especially about the culture we live in.

 

I remember the days when it was OK to be disappointed. But now we've all got to get reyt angry mad the minute something doesn't go our way.  In life in general not just football.

 

Knockbacks are part and parcel of life yet some people just won't accept that nowadays.

 

And I promise I'll remember that for the upcoming season.

 

[matthefish2002]

26 minutes ago, Sambo89 said:

And I won't slate em for it. Theyve tried to take a good penalty, stuttered run up, trying to trick keeper into diving so you can go the other way, its bolłocks! Decide where you're putting the ball, step up and hit it. 

 

I think I would tell someone who wants to take a penalty like Marcus Rashford did to make sure you score otherwise you do look a bit daft if you miss.

 

At half time last night I thought we hand one hand on the trophy but we seemed to retreat into our shells after that.

Overall Italy deserved to pip us.

Hard luck last night, another millimeter here or there and we could have won.

[Manwë]

23 minutes ago, Pablo Bonvin said:

I remember the days when it was OK to be disappointed. But now we've all got to get reyt angry mad the minute something doesn't go our way.  In life in general not just football.

 

I think social media amplifies the loud minority of those people.

 

I'm in work today, a lot of sore hearts and heads, and absolutely we've moaned about the penalties (we're football fans, why not moan about missed penalties), but I think most people are not angry.

[OwlBiSeeinThi]

30 minutes ago, Brissy-owl said:

what a tournament,  brilliant to be in a final, never great to lose any game on penalties, hopefully they dont get abused by the online pond life, I wish I got that emotional for Wednesday that's for sure, bring on the world cup!

I think due to some odd tactical decisions we came up short. I still don't know why he didn't take off Phillips and Sterling for Rashford and Sancho at the start if extra time and go for the win.  Not to take anything away from the lads, they did well throughout and there can be only one winner.

 

I can't help but think that this was the best chance were going to get to win a major tournament.

 

And I really hope those scumbag pondlife twats who have been racially abusing the three lads who missed their pens are either prosecuted or receive a damn good kicking in a dark alley somewhere.

 

There is no place for it.

[OxonOwl]

I do not blame those that missed.

 

I blame the coaching staff and ultimately Southgate.

 

They should be taught not to faff about before taking a penalty.

 

You should train to take them like the Harrys. If the keeper guesses right you are still favourite to score and if he saves it, fair play to the guy.

 

...and don't use players who have been on the pitch 2 minutes. FFS

 

 

[onlyonedavidhirst]

I said it before the match and I'll say it after. Too many views seen to be in the extreme. England did well, it was a great competition to watch. It's a big shame they didn't win because they had home advantage and realistically only played one side, Italy, who are a top 5 European side right now. Gareth has to learn though, his ultra cautious method when playing other top sides rarely pays dividends. We beat Germany, but right now they are way off where they normally are, but we've lost to Italy and Croatia in games we could have won. The Mourinho type approach has largely been found out, almost all competitions nowadays are won by teams playing on the front foot. 

[vulva]

Penalties are as much about character as technique, especially in this situation. As a result, I was surprised that Pickford didn’t take one of the 5. 

[Brommers]

2 hours ago, Inspector Lestrade said:

 

Thought that idea had been ditched

Absolutely correct, that's why it has changed from summer to winter.

[mcmigo]

We got 97 percent of the way to winning and fell painfully short at the last.

 

I agree with some that there were shades if Croatia 2018 in the match last night. An early lead , and then increasing retreat as the occasion and opposition got on top. The Italians showed why no one has beaten them in 34 matches.  
 

I still think the approach was right . The two centre backs had outstanding tournaments, the goalkeeper was excellent , and the two central midfielders did a good job protecting the defence. We aren’t an easy team to beat - hence why we got to the final and it took pens for us to lose.  We just came up a bit short at the last act, Sterling taking a rare wrong decision, sitting back and conceding the ball for too long and the strategy on pens was clearly flawed.
 

we have come a long way as many have also said.  I don’t know where the extra little bit that finally wins us tournaments comes from I must admit 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brommers]

Overall we did well but blew a big opportunity. 

My main gripe is not utilising our biggest strength which was our attacking options from the bench. Sterling was dead on his feet in extra time but wasn't subbed.

[matthefish2002]

1 hour ago, morganowl said:

thats the 3rd england game ive fallen asleep watching , complete bore fest watching southgates tactics , only 3 players started who aint defensive says it all, 1 shot in 120 mins. should have attacked those 36 year old defenders ,never get the southgate love , fancy letting a young kid take last min who has never took a pen ever. 

 

It's no surprise that a big football match turns into a bit of a grind.

Very few managers in such a big game would have been attacking when its being well organised has got us to the point.

Southgate deserves praise for getting us to final but all this saccharine 'He is such a wonderful human being stuff' grates on me a bit.

A times over last week its been more like a cheesy episode of X factor than build up to a football game.

[mcmigo]

8 minutes ago, vulva said:

Penalties are as much about character as technique, especially in this situation. As a result, I was surprised that Pickford didn’t take one of the 5. 

The Italy keeper looked like Andre the giant in that goal .  With the occasion , the goalie  -you won’t take a pen in a harder situation than that.

 

What do we do next time though ? All will be in the next squad, maybe they need to speak to Stuart Pearce about how he went from missing in 90 to scoring in 96 .

[cardiffowl06]

I think people forget Southgate is also learning. He learnt a very harsh lesson last night. Hopefully we don't repeat the same mistakes at the World Cup.

[The Wall]

For those over-analysing the penalties, you have to accept that there is a large slice of luck involved.

Jorginho was the best penalty taker ever, until Pickford saved his, now is he rubbish?

We don't help ourselves by harping on about Southgate's pen either. Basically saying to the players 'if you miss, we'll talk about it for 25 years'.

The players who took them obviously looked the best in training. We had a plan, so did Italy, one of us had to lose, it really is as simple as that.

 

My hope is that in a few years we can't even remember who missed the pens in this final

[OxonOwl]

5 minutes ago, The Wall said:

My hope is that in a few years we can't even remember who missed the pens in this final

 

I hope we remember why we missed them and have done something to stop it happening again.

 

 

[Manwë]

7 minutes ago, The Wall said:

you have to accept that there is a large slice of luck involved.

 

I think this is too simple.  If luck was so important, then England are either beyond unlucky, or would have won more penalty shoot-outs than previous.  A law of averages, even having a bias due to bad luck, would have seen England win more penalty shoot outs over the years than we have done.

I think penalties are just like the rest of football, a game of skill, practice and every other part of the professional game.  The most skilful will have the most luck.  There's still a chance the goalkeeper will save it (that's his job), but placing penalties at good heights for the goalkeeper decreases the luck, and placing penalties at good heights is also down to a lack of skill.

 

Nothing will ever beat skill. 

 

We can't go into the next tournament so naïve towards penalties.