Italy v England | Euro 2020 Final

[Nellies left peg]

Some kind of celebrity, a big man?

The voice of athletics and a top olympic coach

 

[Uncle Wally One Ball]

I find it so bizarre about people being so surprised about the behaviour of the fans. It's probably because the people who are most outraged are people who aren't actually football fans. I can remember at Maine Road when kids used to jump in behind you in the turnstiles, that sort of thing has always happened. Booing national anthems... Pft, when has that been a problem? It isn't Wimbledon.

I'm not sure where you can find it but watch the film 'One Night in Turin', our supporters have always been an absolute disgrace. I don't know if people are just snowflakes nowadays but what happened last week was very tame in comparison.... Think of events like Heysel where English fan behaviour used to kill people.

It's easy to forget that at one point in the 80's/90's we were banned from European competitions because of our fans.

The racism thing is obviously not on at all and thankfully that is only down to a minority on social media, that's completely different but for everything else I'm really not surprised.

We were banned from Euro competition because of scousers

 

[paulchapo]

For me, Southgate was "obliged" to have the best creative talent the country has had in many a year, because had these players not been called up, there would have been an outcry from fellow managers, pundits and pros.

The issue is Southgates style doesn't maximise this creativity and England don't get the best out of them.

Sadly, whilst Southgate is the gaffer, unless he can adopt new tactics to best utilise the talent at his disposal, England will suffer.

He has said himself and his coaches analysed tournament football and came to the conclusion defensive sides win them. Time will tell whether he's proved right or not or it proves a complete load of bollocks, like Charlie Hughes the long ball game is the way forward mantra.

 

[lust overlord]

He has said himself and his coaches analysed tournament football and came to the conclusion defensive sides win them. Time will tell whether he's proved right or not or it proves a complete load of bollocks, like Charlie Hughes the long ball game is the way forward mantra.

The defensive sides winning may well be true.
Most in the past,were still reliant on brilliant individuals doing the business when it counted,and a coach who had more strings to his bow tactically.

We left most of our brilliant individuals on the bench,or brought them on when it was far too late,and apparently left one out because of a yellow card.
And we had Gareth.
Nuff said.

 

[supercity88]

He has said himself and his coaches analysed tournament football and came to the conclusion defensive sides win them. Time will tell whether he's proved right or not or it proves a complete load of bollocks, like Charlie Hughes the long ball game is the way forward mantra.

Pragmatism wins tournaments. One style of play can be found out. I think what Southgate did well early in the tournament is manage the squad ready for the knockouts and alternate formations based on the opposition.

What he did well against Denmark is hold back the subs and then blow them away with our fitness in ET.

In the final fear finally gripped him. He waited too long to make subs in the 2nd half when experience should have told him Mancini finds answers and we could all see their goal was coming.

Unleashing Grealish, Saka and even Sancho for Trippier, Mount and another would have forced them to sit off or punish their pursuit of a goal.

Instead we waited and waited and whilst we got to penalties we showed no endeavour to win that game from the 2nd half to the final whistle. And that was a missed opportunity.

Deschamps and France suffered in 2016. They over committed and got caught out. In the 2018 WC they showed more balance and made amends. Let's hope we can do the same.

 

[Onholiday(somemightsay)]

I'm not talking about the actual song or the fans singing it, but the journalists like Henry Winter putting it to other players. It comes across badly, as was seen by Schmeichel's reaction. Liverpool fans have created the slogan "this means more". Imagine if Pep, or one of the City players was asked before we played Liverpool, 'how are you going to stop this team, when it clearly means more to them'? The press needs to be more professional than that.

To be fair, I encourage that line of questioning in this instance but maybe to someone like Morrison................

 

[Mancity1980]

I mean, the most baffling thing for us Italians fans is just the assured, pumped up view of shouting from the rooftops that you're gonna win before the match even starts, but to us it's the same kind of "baffling" as a man who shoots his own foot. The reason is that we are very superstitious in football, so for example if you'd read through some Italian fan pages before the match all the messages were "Congrats to England for winning the Euros!" and stuff like that. We call it "gufare" in Italian (lit. "to owl", because owls are bad luck birds), which simply means to jinx the other team by assuredly announcing that they'll win. Because of that, seeing you guys jinx yourselves with the innocent carelessness of children is culturally incomprehensible to us. We are glad you keep doing it though.





I know the song was originally ironic and lighthearted but let's not kid ourselves, when your fans shout "It's coming home!" they don't use it in a self-deprecating way at all. They use it with those exact connotations that we "ignorant foreigners" perceived. So yeah Skinner & co. created it with a certain meaning in mind, but the phrase itself has been adopted by fans as a standalone which they use at face value.

No they don’t, it’s we hope it’s coming home. There are examples of fans singing songs that they are going to win something like the scousers in 2014 shouting “we’re gonna win the league” and that was funny but this isn’t that.

I would except that as we get closer (which no doubt we just did) it’s get louder and more feistier, but can you blame us after 55 years. The superstitious angle is interesting, how would you feel if we perceive it as gutless? I bet some me Italian would be annoyed with that false perception.

 

[Mancity1980]

A british athletics coach, Ron Pickering, went round knocking on doors in working class areas a generation ago to recruit kids for the sport. Linford Christie was one of his recruits. Made a huge difference. Does tennis do similar?

Tennis only knocks on posh doors. I remember Ron Pickering, what a great guy he was.

 

[Mancity1980]

I'm not talking about the actual song or the fans singing it, but the journalists like Henry Winter putting it to other players. It comes across badly, as was seen by Schmeichel's reaction. Liverpool fans have created the slogan "this means more". Imagine if Pep, or one of the City players was asked before we played Liverpool, 'how are you going to stop this team, when it clearly means more to them'? The press needs to be more professional than that.

I know you are and you are correct. It seems to me that European countries interpret it as the “arrogant English” and that means you and me pal and that is annoying.

 

[Kippax77]

Pragmatism wins tournaments. One style of play can be found out. I think what Southgate did well early in the tournament is manage the squad ready for the knockouts and alternate formations based on the opposition.

What he did well against Denmark is hold back the subs and then blow them away with our fitness in ET.

In the final fear finally gripped him. He waited too long to make subs in the 2nd half when experience should have told him Mancini finds answers and we could all see their goal was coming.

Unleashing Grealish, Saka and even Sancho for Trippier, Mount and another would have forced them to sit off or punish their pursuit of a goal.

Instead we waited and waited and whilst we got to penalties we showed no endeavour to win that game from the 2nd half to the final whistle. And that was a missed opportunity.

Deschamps and France suffered in 2016. They over committed and got caught out. In the 2018 WC they showed more balance and made amends. Let's hope we can do the same.

Don't know so much about blowing Denmark away.
Yes we were the better side for much of the game, but it was a joke of a penalty that saw us progress

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

The voice of athletics and a top olympic coach

Whoosh..

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

Have we won yet?

 

[Bluesince88]

Don't know so much about blowing Denmark away.
Yes we were the better side for much of the game, but it was a joke of a penalty that saw us progress

Also got away with his tactics for me. We battered them that first half of extra time. They were on the ropes and we scored. We then decided to take a fresh Grealish off and go to a back 5 and invite fifteen mins of pressure from them which they didn’t have in them previously. Pumped a lot of balls into the box, won a few corners which can easily lead to goals. Thankfully it didn’t and by winning many may say it was proved right. I said at that point we’d lose the final because of him.

 

[Kippax77]

Also got away with his tactics for me. We battered them that first half of extra time. They were on the ropes and we scored. We then decided to take a fresh Grealish off and go to a back 5 and invite fifteen mins of pressure from them which they didn’t have in them previously. Pumped a lot of balls into the box, won a few corners which can easily lead to goals. Thankfully it didn’t and by winning many may say it was proved right. I said at that point we’d lose the final because of him.

I backed Italy from the start for no other reason than. SIR BOBBY MANC

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

I backed Italy from the start for no other reason than. SIR BOBBY MANC

I fully expect Southgate to be Knighted in the NY honours - "For doing quite well"

 

[Bewar3them00n]

As soon as the Italians scored, I walked out, went for a very long walk, the same trick I used when we needed 2 goals vs QPR, sadly I got back just as the penalties were on, and the magic fizzled out, sorry guys, it’s on me! If only I’d walked 5 mins longer!

 

[WNRH]

I mean, the most baffling thing for us Italians fans is just the assured, pumped up view of shouting from the rooftops that you're gonna win before the match even starts, but to us it's the same kind of "baffling" as a man who shoots his own foot. The reason is that we are very superstitious in football, so for example if you'd read through some Italian fan pages before the match all the messages were "Congrats to England for winning the Euros!" and stuff like that. We call it "gufare" in Italian (lit. "to owl", because owls are bad luck birds), which simply means to jinx the other team by assuredly announcing that they'll win. Because of that, seeing you guys jinx yourselves with the innocent carelessness of children is culturally incomprehensible to us. We are glad you keep doing it though.





I know the song was originally ironic and lighthearted but let's not kid ourselves, when your fans shout "It's coming home!" they don't use it in a self-deprecating way at all. They use it with those exact connotations that we "ignorant foreigners" perceived. So yeah Skinner & co. created it with a certain meaning in mind, but the phrase itself has been adopted by fans as a standalone which they use at face value.

That’s your perception but it’s wrong. The song brings people together in a way no other song could.

My mrs 93 year old grandma who has seen probably ten games of football in her life got caught up with it coming home as all her family got into the spirit of things as the tournament progresses.

It’s coming home is no different to we’re going to win it, it’s just different words.

 

[supercity88]

Don't know so much about blowing Denmark away.
Yes we were the better side for much of the game, but it was a joke of a penalty that saw us progress

We destroyed them in ET when we made our subs. It was the most comfortable ET I have ever seen watching England. And then when they threw another striker on he threw another defender on to go to a back 3 to deal with it. We passed it around the park without a problem to see the game out.

It wasn't a pen but the goal was coming. His issue in the final was not reacting to Mancini's changes until they had scored. At 1-1 Italy were still the better side but more than happy to take us to pens because they were confident they could win.

He fucked the final. In many ways going 1-0 down would have been better and forced him to go more attacking. Those first 15mins of the second half were disastrous and yet Mancini made changes to take advantage and Southgate sat off hoping we would see it out and could then put 5 defenders on to hold on. We should have put more pace on to take advantage. Allowed an out ball over the top to force their players from over committing.

But maybe one day everything will fall into place. Next Nov/Dec I hope!

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I mean, the most baffling thing for us Italians fans is just the assured, pumped up view of shouting from the rooftops that you're gonna win before the match even starts, but to us it's the same kind of "baffling" as a man who shoots his own foot. The reason is that we are very superstitious in football, so for example if you'd read through some Italian fan pages before the match all the messages were "Congrats to England for winning the Euros!" and stuff like that. We call it "gufare" in Italian (lit. "to owl", because owls are bad luck birds), which simply means to jinx the other team by assuredly announcing that they'll win. Because of that, seeing you guys jinx yourselves with the innocent carelessness of children is culturally incomprehensible to us. We are glad you keep doing it though.





I know the song was originally ironic and lighthearted but let's not kid ourselves, when your fans shout "It's coming home!" they don't use it in a self-deprecating way at all. They use it with those exact connotations that we "ignorant foreigners" perceived. So yeah Skinner & co. created it with a certain meaning in mind, but the phrase itself has been adopted by fans as a standalone which they use at face value.

It appears that the rest of the world just doesn’t “get” English football song culture.

When Yeovil Town fans sing “and it’s Yeovil Town, Yeovil Town FC, we’re by far the greatest team that the world has ever seen”; you need to realise that Yeovil Town fans don’t really think that! And no other sets of fans laugh at Yeovil fans for singing it, we don’t think they really think it, and when Yeovil lose or get related no other sets of fans start saying “hahaha we thought you were the greatest team the world has ever seen?!”

City’s club song is called “The Boys In Blue” and the main line in the song is “the boys in blue never give in”, numerous times at the Etihad and even at Wembley a few years ago in the EFL Cup final we had banners in our end saying that:


You can even buy t-shirts with it on.

But we’ve all seen City teams and players give in many many… many many many… times over the years.

We sang “CITY CITY The Best Team In The Land And All The World” when we were in divisions below the Premier League.

But theyre just a football songs, they are not literal.

Three Lions It’s just a song that England fans sing when they get excited. There’s no deeper meaning, arrogance, delusion or anything else attached to singing the song or saying it as a phrase… it’s just a football song. When England do well and look like they might go somewhere in a competition, expect to hear it regularly.

So throwing it back at us because you think we sing songs in arrogance just makes us think none of you get English football song culture, rather than making us cower back to our holes hiding in shame.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

It appears that the rest of the world just doesn’t “get” English football song culture.

When Yeovil Town fans sing “and it’s Yeovil Town, Yeovil Town FC, we’re by far the greatest team that the world has ever seen”; you need to realise that Yeovil Town fans don’t really think that! And no other sets of fans laugh at Yeovil fans for singing it, we don’t think they really think it, and when Yeovil lose or get related no other sets of fans start saying “hahaha we thought you were the greatest team the world has ever seen?!”

City’s club song is called “The Boys In Blue” and the main line in the song is “the boys in blue never give in”, numerous times at the Etihad and even at Wembley a few years ago in the EFL Cup final we had banners in our end saying that:
View attachment 21479

You can even buy t-shirts with it on.

But we’ve all seen City teams and players give in many many… many many many… times over the years.

We sang “CITY CITY The Best Team In The Land And All The World” when we were in divisions below the Premier League.

But theyre just a football songs, they are not literal.

Three Lions It’s just a song that England fans sing when they get excited. There’s no deeper meaning, arrogance, delusion or anything else attached to singing the song or saying it as a phrase… it’s just a football song. When England do well and look like they might go somewhere in a competition, expect to hear it regularly.

So throwing it back at us because you think we sing songs in arrogance just makes us think none of you get English football song culture, rather than making us cower back to our holes hiding in shame.

We‘ve sang that song for 25 years, the only arrogance is from those calling us arrogant.