Euros 2020

[Slade]

I'm pretty tired of Micah Richard's punditry.  I'm not impressed at all and find him quite annoying, particularly that laugh of his.  I don't mind them cracking and laughing at the odd joke but he laughs at just about anything and it doesn't seem very professional.

So Denmark have scored 10 goals in their last 3 games.  Impressive.  Like England, they also have the benefit of not having to go to extra time or penalties so they should be relatively fresh unlike the Ukraine yesterday.

England's performance was excellent.  The main concern though is around Pickford.  There were several times in that match where he didn't look confident with back passes at all and even fluffed a clearance when he came off his goal line.  You would think based on England's last 2 performances they should be able to beat Denmark but again I'm not getting complacent as Denmark don't have an issue scoring goals.  England break the all time record of clean sheets in the European championships with 5.  You'd think it's inevitable they are going to concede...

One thing regarding Italy and Spain, this will be the fourth European Championships in a row where these 2 teams have met, playing each other five times.  Spain lead 2-1 with one match drawn.

[CaptainHulk]

!

[Slade]

Highly entertaining match with Italy and Spain, certainly throughout the first 90 minutes.  I suspected Spain would give Italy problems because of the ability to keep the ball and through large parts of that game I thought they were the better side although Italy were good on the counter.  Overall I would say they were about equal.  I do think penalties does come down to bottle in a lot of cases but I think Spain ultimately lost this match, not because of their below average penalty taking but because they don't have a natural goal scorer.  They had 3 very good chances over the 90 minutes which should have been put away. Person I felt sorry for the most was Morata.  He had been getting a lot of stick online for his performances and he will probably be blamed for the penalty miss.

England are probably favourites to win against Denmark but I'm not completely ruling the Danes out.  Today might be the first time England actually concede in this tournament.

Italy are definitely favourites now and if they play like they did in the group matches and how they did against Belgium, they should win comfortable regardless of who they face on Sunday.

[Red Ranger 1]

Well. Who saw that coming? I was all prepared to be left disappointed, and I was having to keep track of the match at work by nipping into the canteen to check the telly ever few minutes, and...we've done it! England in their first major final since 1966 and first European Championship final ever. Kane gets his fourth goal: I would love him to get two in the final and overtake Ronaldo and Schick. Shame Sterling didn't get his as well, when Kjaer did it for him.

And Spain find that being unable to take penalties is a problem when you're playing a team that actually score theirs (until 2018, they were the only team to actually lose a shoot-out against England). So, England v Italy on Sunday, which I recall was the final some people were hoping for in the 1990 World Cup until they both went out in the semis.

Could England do it? It'll be tricky, but the way things are going at the moment, anything seems possible...

[CaptainHulk]

I was caning the scotch by extra time. It's a miracle I made into work today!

[pembie]

So I thought we were bound to lose that but no there’s some people saying it wasn’t a real pently but I don’t know they scored and won which is main thing good job it was given because if not it could have been a real pently shoot out I think Itay though I have been told are professional fake divers 

but we’ll done England it’s been like the only thing I have enjoyed in a long time and when England win on Sunday it will be the first time I have seen England win at football in my lifetime Goalkeepers risk in sometimes though coming away from the goal to pass it it if this was FIFA just go tackle the goalie and get the ball off him 

[Jezz]

Really enjoyed watching the Euros.

Would be great to see England break their long trophy drought, but just have a feeling Italy will edge it. They're 33 matches unbeaten.

[Slade]

I do think England were the team that were actually trying to win in extra time whereas Denmark were playing for penalties so England deserved to go through.  Was that a penalty when Sterling was fouled?  I don't think so.  I think he was looking for a penalty and I think he deliberately went down.  The pundits seemed to suggest it was harsh.  And even on the news that was shown after the game, the presenter used the term 'soft' when describing the penalty.  You're not going to turn it down if you're England but if that had been the other way round, there would have been uproar.  So I think it was harsh on Denmark and they have played very well in the tournament since losing their first two group games.  I'm not convinced England would have won the match had it gone to penalties but the way they were playing I think they were likely to score anyway.

I've been overly critical of England at times.  This comes mainly as a result of the media, the hype they create and the over expectations in just about every tournament I've seen them compete in.  I also hate how a small segment of the fans conduct themselves (Re the German girl crying at Wembley when her team lost and she was subject to online abuse, the shining of the laser pen in Schmeichel's eye to stop him saving Harry Kane's penalty and the fans who attacked the father of the Danish family on a bus).  I've spoken to quite a few foreign people in the past who have also said they don't have an issue with the English team but the media as well.  In saying that I do think credit should be given and they've done tremendously well to get to their first final since 1966.  And they've got just about the whole nation behind them which can really help.  I'm still not getting my hopes up and I do agree with Red Ranger that anything is possible but based on what I've seen from both teams in the tournament, I think England are going to have a very hard job today.  The main issue is going to be scoring.  Italy are unlikely to concede from a set piece which is what England are most likely to score from.  They are going to have to use the pace of the front players but they aren't going to get many clear cut chances.  On the other hand Italy have pretty potent strikers up front and can win the game with one chance and are good on the counter.  It will be interesting to see how Southgate approaches this.  Will he come out and play or will he sit back and play it safe?

[CaptainHulk]

Super pissed.

And it's worse when it's ALL on your newsfeed on socials...

[Red Ranger 1]

Oh well.

Dream start for England with Shaw scoring within two minutes, after which they held onto the lead for over an hour before Italy equalised. They had times when they seemed to be on top and really could have made something of it: Saka being pulled back at the end of normal time was frustrating. But down to penalties and...yeah. Rashford and Sancho get brought on just before the end and take absolutely terrible penalties, trying to be too clever.Kane and Maguire had the right idea: Clean run-up and blast it in the corner. Yet Pickford saves two, meaning Saka needs to score to keep them in it...and doesn't.

So, Italy are champions but first final for England (shame they all seemed to feel the need to take their medals off straightaway, which looked a bit sulky and unsporting) and it was a fun ride. So yeah, World Cup at a silly time next year, see if they can qualify for that after a good start!