If you’re a guest in someone’s house and they have certain ways of doing things there, do you sit there and pout and call it dumb? I trust the judgment of our moderator team, their “ruling” keep this place purring like a kitten. Your opinion and disagreement have been noted. Let’s leave it at that.
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Yup. 
We can’t do anything about the fantastic run of form the Italians are in (I’m not really talking about their enormous and admittedly impressive unbeaten streak here btw; there are a lot of average/poor sides in that run. I’m talking about how they’ve come into scintillating form just prior to this tournament and right the way through it. They’ve been the best team at the Euros, no doubt, just as there’s no doubt as I see it that England have been the 2nd best team at the Euros), but if England concentrate on their own game and don’t let the nerves get to them - and I have to say I got a sense of nervousness kicking in against Denmark, especially from Pickford - then they definitely have enough quality to spring an upset.
My head says it’s almost certainly a step too far. Italy are very strong. My heart says anything’s possible at this point. And it is.
Congratulations to Italy. Ultimately, the best side at the tournament.
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Bravo Italy!
Congratulations to Italy
Ultimately the Italians were indeed the best team of the tournament. Spain was better in the semi-final, but they weren’t really consistent during the tournament, alternating a few good games with as many bad ones. They are the team of the future though, and the same thing can be said about the English team: both Spain and England have a selection of young, very talented players and they can only get better in the years to come.
As far as yesterday’s game is concerned: it made me think of the 1974 World Cup Final Germany - Holland. We - the Dutch that is - scored a very early goal and it turned out later that the players on the pitch and their coach (Rinus Michels) didn’t agree about what to do after this early goal: some wanted to push through, try to score an early second and give the Germans the coup de grâce, others wanted to lean back, save energy, and let the Germans do the dirty work. The coach then decided to lean back, the Germans came back into the game, and we never really recovered from the mistake to lean back … It’s what happened to England as well: the Italians were confused after this early goal, they were all over the place, but England didn’t try to finish off the wounded animal, and eventueally paid the price for it … But of course you don’t know what would have happened if they … in the end it’s all specualation
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You’re more optimistic than me. I think Southgate needs to learn quickly from his mistakes because they were plain and obvious to me. He’d have won that trophy if he’d have kept Rice on the pitch and replaced Mount with Henderson instead. Using his favourite youngsters to take penalties, as well, what’s up with that? He had experienced players who could have easily taken care of business
I’ve read that comment elsewhere too. I wouldn’t have picked those youngsters, but then again I don’t know how good these more experienced players are at taking penalties. It a special kind of art and some players are good at it, even at a young age, and others have no feeling for it. I think Rashford has successfully taken penalties in the past, and I guess he was willing to take one. Not sure about Sancho and Saka, but I heard that Southgate said that they were among the best penalty takers during the training sessions (a training session is not a match, but still …). I can understand his reasoning. What seemed a very bad idea to me, was bringing two players (who were appointed as penalty takers) only a minute or so before the end of extra time, they probably hadn’t even touched the ball before the final whistle came.
If I believed in karma I would say that that was what just hit England back. Reports keep ticking in how the Danish supporters were attacked during the match. Damn disgrace. We cheered when we found out not that Italy won but England lost. Condolences to the probably great majority that didn’t behave like douchebags.
Very sad to hear. As an Englishman, I completely condemn those responsible. However, I would like to say that unless there is sound data that proves it is more common among English fans, I can’t help but think that there are some exaggerations about the level of English hooliganism.
Back in 2018, when Roma came here to play against Liverpool, Roma fans from Italy attacked Sean Cox and left him in a coma fighting for his life. I would never associate that with the club or Italian football fans in general since it’s always the minority who spoil it for everyone else.
Well there is a large group of Danish fans that have now filed a complaint. Beers bottles thrown at them some with urine, their children also at the game being yellef at, spat on etc. It’s not a single incident. Have heard nothing regarding the other 5 matches Denmark was involved in so do your own math 
That combined with the laser pen tactics during the match and oh well it just piled up. As I said the majority are probably decent people but damn you have a very rotten hardcore core. Let’s see how it goes next year.
Absolutely disgraceful. Very sad to hear it
