Italy

I guess time catches up with those defenders who were the bedrock of their win last year.

I see neither of them started last night; maybe the new breed just aren't up to it?

Sorry to see Pandev has retired for Macedonia; one of the few names from our European adventures who was still going.
 
wilkos_perm said:
They didn't fluke it at all, they were easily the most impressive side in that tournament
Click to expand...
Joking?

They were average.

They were dominated by Spain in the semi's and even Austria outplayed them.

They had a large slice of luck on more than one occasion.

The history books will always say - Italy Euro 2020 winners and fair play to them. There's more than 1 way to skin a cat.

But they were miles from being the 'most impressive side' in the 2020 Euros.
 
They won and that's all that matters, really. Took better pens than us.

But Rashford's penalty going three inches to the right and we're probably talking about how Italy started too quickly and how they limped into the final on penalties after being taken to extra time one too many times.
 
Marvanelli said:
Joking?

They were average.

They were dominated by Spain in the semi's and even Austria outplayed them.

They had a large slice of luck on more than one occasion.

The history books will always say - Italy Euro 2020 winners and fair play to them. There's more than 1 way to skin a cat.

But they were miles from being the 'most impressive side' in the 2020 Euros.
Click to expand...
They played the best football and defended very well when required. It was only extra time against Spain where they were outplayed.
I think the England game was the only one where they went behind, they were certainly in the knockout stages anyway. They also dominated England in the final after the first 15 mins or so.

I'd say it was pretty widely accepted that they were the best side overall.
 
wilkos_perm said:
They played the best football and defended very well when required. It was only extra time against Spain where they were outplayed.
I think the England game was the only one where they went behind, they were certainly in the knockout stages anyway. They also dominated England in the final after the first 15 mins or so.

I'd say it was pretty widely accepted that they were the best side overall.
Click to expand...

Spain played the best football.

England were the best defensively.

Italy won the tournament.
 
TeaCider said:
Spain played the best football.

England were the best defensively.

Italy won the tournament.
Click to expand...
Can't disagree with this.

I seem to remember reading a lot online when they won it, about how Italy just did what they needed to do.

They were impressive in their group, especially given the fact their group was one of the more difficult ones to get out of.

However, in the KO stages, they were far from convincing.

They struggled against Austria and needed ET.

Against Belgium they probably deserved their win but it wasn't a masterclass.

In the Semi's against Spain they were outclassed, outplayed, but Spain just simply didn't have a goal scorer who could put the game to bed. Spain did everything but score enough. Italy were fortunate for that game to go to penalties.

Then against us in the final, the first half they were poor and we should've put them out of sight. We didn't, they came back stronger in the second half, and managed to beat us on penalties.

Most impressive side at the Euros were Spain IMO. A lot of youth and they were coming into this tournament with a lot of ill feeling - with dropping Ramos etc. And they impressed me very much. Their youth were brilliant and on another day, they'd have breezed past Italy in the semi's and walked their way to that final.
 
Italy were the most impressive side in Euro 2020, some very salty people in here.

You have to name a more impressive side than Italy to say they weren't and people are yet to name any. You can argue that not many teams were impressive but Italy were still the most impressive side and I didn't think it was particularly close either.
 
Chappy112 said:
Italy were the most impressive side in Euro 2020, some very salty people in here.

You have to name a more impressive side than Italy to say they weren't and people are yet to name any. You can argue that not many teams were impressive but Italy were still the most impressive side and I didn't think it was particularly close either.
Click to expand...

I've literally named Spain.

There's nothing salty about it.

Spain were better than England too.
 
Marvanelli said:
Most impressive side at the Euros were Spain IMO. A lot of youth and they were coming into this tournament with a lot of ill feeling - with dropping Ramos etc. And they impressed me very much. Their youth were brilliant and on another day, they'd have breezed past Italy in the semi's and walked their way to that final.
Click to expand...
Spain!? Spain were getting pelters from home for being so bad. They were dreadful in the group stage and scraped past Switzerland in the quarters, I'm sorry but Spain were nowhere near Italy over the entire tournament.
 
Chappy112 said:
Spain!? Spain were getting pelters from home for being so bad. They were dreadful in the group stage and scraped past Switzerland in the quarters, I'm sorry but Spain were nowhere near Italy over the entire tournament.
Click to expand...
Yes Spain.

They were going into that tournament with a lot of bad press and a lot of turmoil because of the squad that was picked and who was left out of it. The expectations for that Spain squad was as low as it has been in a tournament for decades.

Their achilles heel all tournament was scoring (which was ironic given the fact they smashed Slovakia 5-0 in the group)

They dominated Sweden in their first game and remarkably Sweden held on for a goalless draw.

The same happened against Poland. They battered them and again, didn't have that killer instinct in front of goal.

They beat a very good Croatia team in the first KO game and then dominated the Swiss in the Quarters - again, goalscoring being the problem.

Then in the semi's, the same happened. Did everything but made Italy pay.

Quite a few of their youngsters were outstanding, none other than Pedri who basically ran the show in every game they played.

They very much impressed me, much more than the Italians.

I will be keeping a close eye on them for Qatar, because they looked very good in the Euros.
 
TeaCider said:
I've literally named Spain.

There's nothing salty about it.

Spain were better than England too.
Click to expand...
That''ll be Spain who drew with Sweden and Poland in the group and needed penalties to get past Switzerland? They also threw away a 3-1 lead vs Croatia in the last 5 minutes and ended up in extra time
 
People are misremembering things if they think Italy weren't the stand out team of the tournament. They beat all of the teams you might say were contenders. They had a really tough run to the final. They played really good football at some points and they were solid. Some of the other teams had some good games like Spain but Italy were consistently the best across the tournament as a whole. We were lucky to take it to penalties in the final. We scored an early goal but they dominated the rest of the game.
 
wilkos_perm said:
That''ll be Spain who drew with Sweden and Poland in the group and needed penalties to get past Switzerland? They also threw away a 3-1 lead vs Croatia in the last 5 minutes and ended up in extra time
Click to expand...
That's Switzerland who had 10 men from the 77th minute and all through extra time by the way.
 
wilkos_perm said:
That''ll be Spain who drew with Sweden and Poland in the group and needed penalties to get past Switzerland? They also threw away a 3-1 lead vs Croatia in the last 5 minutes and ended up in extra time
Click to expand...

It will be, yeah.

They were more entertaining to watch than Italy during the tournament.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top