i dont understand why there was so little coverage if this tournament, was able to watch every game of the under 17 tournament. eurosport didnt even have delayed coverage of the last 2 Italy games.
Under 19 Semi Final about to kick off. Meret, Vitturini, Romagna (C), Coppolaro, Dimarco; Ghiglione, Barella, Locatelli, Picchi; Panico, Favilli.
Good game, great free kick scored by Dimarco. Italy defended well and worked their socks off. Romagna was a rock again and the left back Dimarco now has 4 goals.
yeah they all worked hard and played as a no frills unit. if we are getting this type of performance from our under 19 team, who havent qualified for the past 5 tournaments we are doing something right at underage level. These lads proved that the talent is there they just need to get a chance to play senior football.
I thought we did well at the last 2 U21's too. Final vs Spain in 2013 that wasn't without some debatable call. In 2015 we were the better team in all three games with a few minutes of lack of focus against Sweden that cost us the game after dominating most. Then Portugal bunkering to draw us, and finally another "biscotto" between Portugal and Sweden who end up playing each other in the final. Sweden lucked out there to win.
The under 21's are always strong though, sometimes we flop or get a shit manager like Casiraghi but we are always one of the best teams in Europe at that age.
No the French front line is too quick and strong for us. That's the big difference between the teams, they have two good strikers while our strikers have yet to score in the tournament.
Yup, the French are bigger and faster. They look more physically mature at this stage in their development. Our strikers kind of suck. We started very well and the defense and midfield looked good, but then we got carved by their speed.
The commentators are loving it, but yeah France has been better. English commentators still bitter over the semi final loss... "England were superior!" "didn't deserve to lose because they had more possession!" "Only had two defensive mishaps that led to Italy's goals!" WTF did they want? We even had to score their goal for them. Fckrs are never happy!
"4-0 is a record win in this tournament equalling England's 4-0 win over Spain in 1964. This is definitely not a flattering result for France. They've been superior to Italy in everyway. One of the most one sided final ever witnessed.... [and...waiting for it] England beat France in the opening game and the players have to be thinking...surely we could have beaten these guys!"
The English commentators were indeed hilarious. I thought they were going to break out into the Marseillaise LOL I loved the heart on our team, but they clearly lacked the size and pace to stay with the French strikers. There are some strong players on this team, especially on defense. However, I didn't think the midfielders and strikers were where we need them to be. Locatelli disappointed me this match. He didn't command the midfield the way he was capable of doing. He was slow on the ball and didn't transition quickly enough from defense to offense.