EURO 2020 FINAL. England v Italy. At Wembley. Thread.

[peterborofox]

One of the big myths in football...pens are a lottery. Nonsense.

 

It's a skill and a test. We aren't mentally strong enough for it. 

 

Rashford taking a pen like that at this stage.... unbelievable. Knew we'd lose as soon as he did that

[Duquesne Whistle]

Congratulations to Italy, better team on the night. England probably scored too early.

I've been careful not to judge Southgate while the tournament was still running. Ultimately, his conservatism has cost England. It was pretty predictable that Rashford and Sancho would miss. Hardly any football and he pops them on with 90 seconds left and expects them to slot penalties under that pressure, without touching the ball. Strange, strange decision.

Oh well, Club football is back soon.

[RowlattsFox]

Southgate has done lots of good with this England team but he isn't a good enough manager tactically. 

[Leicesterpool]

Italy on reflection probably deserved the tournament on whole they played the best football and knew how to get out of mess on more than one occasion. We yeah deserve to come second defensively looked solid and were hard team to beat through out. 

[Brooksy]

2 minutes ago, murphy said:

Just to cheer you all up.

 

I'm watching the highlights and the celebrations for a 5000th time. Fcuk it. Cheers

[Nalis]

Just now, coolhandfox said:

As I said before, Southgate would put a condom on for a wank, just encase.

 

Like WC 2018, soon as we played a proper side we got beat.

 

 

To be fair, England looked excellent for the first 20 minutes tonight though. It was more the fact England changed tactics and tried to defend a one goal lead from minute 21 onwards. Wasnt like England were outclassed from start to finish.

[Guest ttfn]

Southgate’s whole approach has been about keeping things tight and hoping to be on the right side of fine margins. In the end his luck ran out.

 

He will surely have regrets about bringing on Saka, not switching formation earlier and then the late double change which sold 2 of his youngest players up the river.

[Sir Shep]

Anyway I’m knackered and I’ve got work tomorrow, no doubt to be ruined by some English born Italians! To quote good morning Vietnam Southgate couldn’t lick the sweat off a dead mans balls, or something like that. Anyway I’m probably being too harsh, stupid chuffing kick off time and now I’ve got to stew in my own bed and probably not sleep much, grrrrr. 

[Guest ttfn]

1 minute ago, peterborofox said:

One of the big myths in football...pens are a lottery. Nonsense.

 

It's a skill and a test. We aren't mentally strong enough for it. 

 

Rashford taking a pen like that at this stage.... unbelievable. Knew we'd lose as soon as he did that

Basically the opposite of the Pirlo panenka.

[The boy Linacre]

9 minutes ago, Mark said:

With Southgate it’ll likely be another tournament wasting Foden and Grealish watching from the sidelines

The way I see it, I have to say totally disillusioned with his 8 defender approach.

But the question is (and I don’t know the answer to this) we reached our 1st final since 66.

Would we have lost earlier being more attacking??

[Jattdogg]

Gordon is a disgraceful human for that comment. 

[fox_up_north]

Yeah, Southgate cocked that up and has potentially tainted a promising young player's career. Massively unfair.

 

One thing if we just go all out, smack it and get some wonder saves but to bring on two players who've had hardly a touch all competition and expect them to put away winning penalties - that's not on. 

[st albans fox]

Just now, The boy Linacre said:

The way I see it, I have to say totally disillusioned with his 8 defender approach.

But the question is (and I don’t know the answer to this) we reached our 1st final since 66.

Would we have lost earlier being more attacking??

Bit like Greece in 04 and Portugal last time …….. we only let the handbrake off against Ukraine in the second half …..

[Guest ttfn]

@StanSPnow the bloody honking has started!

[UniFox21]

Well

[Beliall]

[chrisfox]

Yeah you can poit blame at the penalties but in my opinion taking off Declan rice for a completley ineefective Henderson is worthy of a maassive smack in Southgates ugly mug, oh and honeslty i dont care how knackered hge looked I'm sure he wouldve been better than henderson.

 

Quick side note, stop stuttering your run ups you idiots

[STUHILL]

I thought it was a very safe, negative team selection, set up and in game tactics/subs. Got what we deserved really, as Italy got to grips with us after half an hour and Southgate just didn't respond and the momentum was always with them. 

 

It's been a fantastic tournament but for me, the warning signs were there with Southgate and his tendency to play safe. That's no disrespect to Italy though, they were fantastic and deserved the trophy. 

 

Excited to see how these younger players now develop, but we really need to start playing our best attacking players more. 5 at the back with 2 holding midfielders is not the way to go. With the types of exciting attacking players we have, we should be braver and attempt to win games on the front foot. Attack is the best form of defence, would suit this group of players much more IMO. 

 

[Sly]

6 minutes ago, Walkers said:

What is it with people posting about substations lately @Sly

Everyone loves a good substation! 

[lgfualol]

I'm proud of the lads. Before the tournament I couldnt even be bothered to watch, but they have really rekindled my interest in the national team and fair play to them. 

 

In the end it just came down to experience vs inexperience, from the manager down to the players. Our last 3 penalty takers were under 23. 

 

Disappointing but it's not the last chance to win something. 

[fazzyfox]

Yes we lost on penalties but can they stop brushing over the fact that we didn't do enough in the 120 minutes of normal play to win the game, that is the problem, that was our best chance.

 

Saka hadn't made accurate contact with the ball all night, how was he suddenly going to be composed enough to slot home a penalty? Was Grealish injured from that Jorginho challenge?

 

Wasted the majority of the second half, talk about that not say that the penalty shoot out was the method of our loss. So many times in the second half they'd show the replay of the previous Italy attack, cut back to the action and Italy have it back already but we haven't even seen how, just coming straight back. Saka unfortunately looked so out of it and you've got Foden not getting a minute and Grealish only getting 20. And Mount? I hope he paid for a ticket getting to watch a European Final, as one of just three attacking players he needs to be either capable of going past people (Sterling) or an outstanding finisher (Kane), Mount did a kind of Matty James water carrying role, not enough. At home, in a final, I don't think the 7 defensive players were necessary. 

[RowlattsFox]

I'm gutted, but I'll get over it. Anything england do is a bonus. 

[BraunstoneFox23]

Bring on Burton on the 24th!
 

[Md9]

We have so many good attacking options that if we actually take the game to teams we could   Destroy them especially early in games but we are to worried to play that way 

[HoChiMinhFOX]

8 minutes ago, Walkers said:

Don't care if 23 is young, Rashford has been around playing at the highest level for long enough to have no excuses for missing in the manner in which he did

Ok maybe not rashford as much, but the others were surprising. Disappointing to not see more senior players being picked/stepping up to take penos.