Well this final was not what I had expected, in fact both Belgium and France whom I hoped to be there didn't even make it to the semis. So the two teams that got there, Italy and England were never favorites, well except for maybe Italians and English, but they got there so that is what we had.
The game itself was not much, England had a good first half disappeared from then onward, Italy just played a good second half, by overtime both teams were out of it physically so the result remained the same 1-1 and we had a penalty shootout.
Italy was the first to miss, but England then missed three consecutive penalties, Italy missed another one. This has made a riot in the English press as players were attacked online with racist insults, the players who missed are all dark skinned, Rashford, Sancho and Saka. What the hell does skin color have to do with missing a penalty? Beats me.
Now, I would think that Southgate could be considered the guilty party here, you know instead of three young guys he should have put the more experienced players to kick the penalties, but wait, Rashford isn't exactly a novice he has scored a number of penalties and he hit the post, Donnarumma stopped the other two. So I think the experience thing has nothing to do with it, it is the moment, the nerves, the exhaustion. Suppose Southgate had used Henderson, Walker and Stones, players with experience, and they had missed their respective penalties, today I would have been saying he should have used the younger guys who are just hungrier for glory.
But this is not so, it is just that at the moment of the penalty shot it is just you, the goalkeeper and the goal, you either score or you don't, anyone can miss, Jorginho missed the last Italian penalty and he is supposed to be one of the best penalty takers. So no, I don't blame the players, one of the two teams had to win and it was Italy's turn, so kudos to them. As for England , come on, this is the farthest you have gotten in 55 years in any major tournament (barring the under 21 championships) so instead of looking for whom to blame, rejoice, you have a great team with a great future.
This comes a little late but I had to write about it after reading all the chaos it has created in England.
Actually i was among the few who thought Italy will do well but not to the extent of winning. For England Hmmmmmmm i cant still believe they got to the final.
A surprising tournament it was.
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