Before I get any more annoying mail, can I just put this straight, I’m not a royalist and have never waved the Union Jack for England.
But from a football perspective, of course I support the Three Lions.
I see so many hate comments towards England, expressing relief that they lost.
But football isn’t played by Boris Johnson, football is watched and played by millions of kids and adults all over the country of all ages and races, in working-class communities, just like it is here and the rest of the world. Being an England football supporter doesn’t make you an overweight racist.
Anyway, well done to Italy, they deserved it. I was so excited and proud of England coach Gareth Southgate and his team as they came out firing for 30 minutes, but to be honest it was one-way traffic after that.
The Italians methodically controlled the match and were tactically superior. Their game plan was so solid (apart from conceding a goal after two minutes) right up until the last 10 minutes of extra time when it was clear Roberto Mancini was playing for penalties.
The big question (as it has been the whole tournament) is why does Southgate opt to sit deep following a high press, up-tempo start? Ok, of course you can’t ordinarily expect a side to press for 90 minutes, but as soon as they dropped the Italians had it in the bag.
I feel like the adrenalin and the weight of a country’s expectation would have been enough for a team with an average age of 24 to give that kind of 110 percent performance?
As for the penalties? FFS, bringing on players with a minute to go to? Surely they needed at least five or 10 minutes to become part of the game? And then Bukayo Saka at number five?
That has to be one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen. He had an awful game, hardly touched the ball when he came on and did nothing with it when he did. What kind of frame of mind would he have been in? He’s just a teenager.
This type of pressure can only begin to be handled by experience, which he has so little of. I feel sorry for the kid. He looked like he was about to burst into tears even before he took it!
On the sideshow that is the behaviour of England fans ahead, during and after the game… well, all I can say is people lost their sh!t!
Interestingly, the police stayed off the streets and let the cocaine and beer fuelled hordes sing, smash, scream, dance, chant, shnarf and guzzle their way into the night.
I got countless clips of absolute madness, people breaking bones and acting like it was the last day of the world. It was a wise move for the authorities to let it go on as it would have turned into violence…
So there we have it, Italy are champions and England, well, most people feel they did their country proud. They kind of did, but no one remembers losers.
Saying that, there will be a positive feeling around the camp that the World Cup next year could be their year. As I’ve maintained, I’m still not sure Southgate is the coach to take them over the line.
Be safe people, keep your distance, mask up, vaccinate and wash dem handies! Ciao.