Btw, I was quite disappointed with Berardi yesterday. He seemed to struggle with the ball at his feet and should have done better with his chances on the counter. You do have to question Mancini playing him ahead of Chiesa early in the tournament. The good part of that though is that Chiesa is fresher now.
Immobile was stretching Spain. He was the main reference point of the attack that had opened up the play for Chiesa to score. Immobile also had Italy's best chance before the goal, but he didn't get under his shot enough and skewed it wide. If Italy were to find a goal, he was likely going to be the source of it or play some kind of role in it. Taking him out prior to Chiesa's goal I think would have hurt Italy's prospect of scoring. Bernandeschi, Toloi, Berardi, Belotti... those were the guys Mancini turned to in response to Spain's 71% possession. These are players defined by their work rate, not their talent. Mancini calculated Spain would hold the ball and create little threat with it. He wasn't wrong to think Spain could have all the possession in the world and do nothing with it, but once Spain scored there was only one way Italy could win: on penalties. I have to agree that if di Lorenzo was given more leeway to get forward and maybe if Insigne dropped back at times, Italy could have had more numbers in the midfield and have played with better balance to counter Spain's control over the game. Allowing the game to go to penalties was a calculated gamble. Spain was not clinical like Italy. That was true in the 90 minutes as much as it was true in the penalties. But Italy had to ride their luck, Spain were in control and only have themselves to blame for losing the game.
Everyone is making good points here. I will say that Italy and Mancini were pretty courageous to think that we could take the game to Spain and it was obvious after 20 minutes that wasn’t going to be the case. Spain will dominate possession vs. Any team in the world including Brazil. We should have started the game with a more defensive tactic and introduce offensive guns later in the game. Like totti fan said maybe this is something we’ll want to work on in the next cycle. Also it didn’t help us that Spain were up for it. Luis Enrique knew exactly what he was doing with the false 9. As he said in the post game that he saw how well Chiellini did vs Lukaku and he wanted to make life difficult for him. And in truth Olmo was fantastic. Had he been a little sharper, Spain win this in 90. Chiellini is good when he has a target and when you give him the man to mark. When we got split open you could tell he was bamboozled. Emerson didn’t have a bad game despite what some people are saying and Di Lorenzo was the unsung hero of the match. From back to back games where he went up against Doku and now Ferran Torres he has been overall solid. Not the best game from the midfield 3, but that was to be expected. Berardi drives me absolutely crazy. Everything is there except the shot. He always gets in the right position but can’t pull the trigger. It’s either blocked by the defender or right on the keeper. This is where his provincial quality shows. These are the biggest games he has ever played in his life. Punishment for not joining a big team when they came knocking.
Exactly. Spain approached the whole thing in a cynical way - it's no different from when IItaly were continuously criticized for catenaccio for all those years. Some gratitude needs to be paid forward to men like Klopp who helmed a Renaissance of winning by setting up his team's to score "against the run of play". Having forwards who play a quick direct game and make the most of their possession without being afraid to put balls in the box. With Liverpool we also saw the resurrection of the long ball (but done the right way) being used in the mainstream and with great effect. The Tika Taka only works when you have generational superstars who can hold the ball while also knowing how to run into space to finish plays. Spain couldn't finish anything yesterday apart from Morata literally running at Italy's backline to try and make something happen. Honestly my only regret yesterday were the silly giveaways we committed and the goal we conceded which was maybe the worst goal Italy has given up during this unbeaten streak.
Historical achievement for Italy as I believe this is the first time in history a PK shootout was won at the coin toss
Surprising Alba didnt go down clutching his face crying for a red card. His favourite play. Chiellini walks away from that with the first pen and facing the Italian end. Alba walks away having has no clue what just happened in the past 30 seconds. What a g
That handball on Chiellini was not a pk. He was on the ground and the ball hit his hand as he was falling down to break his fall . That is a new rule supposedly that a pk won't be called in those instances. Euro 2020: Accidental handball rule will change in build-up to ...
As i said earlier, Spain pressed really hard when we had the ball and it was the cause for probably 50% of the turnovers, the other turnovers were just silly. We blew a ton of build up plays by easily giving up the ball, some really bad first touches, bad timing etc. etc. The final is going to be a different game, England nor Denmark have the technical abilities to keep that amount of possession, it's just not happening unless we let it happen. We have a slight advantage of an extra days rest, if today's game goes to extra it will be even more beneficial. I'm just excited that we final, before the Tournament we weren't even considered dark horses by some pundits
Also not sure what happened to Locatelli, who played so well in the first two games, and was put on the bench because of Verratti, then all of a sudden he became the last choice for substitution. When the opponents press high and occupy the midfield, you need players who can do quick and long passes to create space, players like Bonucci, and Jorginho. When those two are heavily marked, which was the case of yesterday's game, Locatelli can be useful to distribute the pressure and win back some possessions. Unfortunately, he was sent on only after the team was exhausted and can run no more. That being said, Mancini knows his players better than anyone else. Let's hope the team recovers from the fatigue quickly and continue the momentum in the final game.
Just like in 2006. The moment I knew we were winning… when I saw Lamezia alla bandiera… Calabria sempre presente