Spain were a lot better than I expected but Italy have the killer touch in front of goal and got there in the end. They reverted to type in extra time and were lucky that there's been a lax style of refereeing in this competition otherwise they would (and should) have had 3 or 4 bookings. Presumably it will be worse in the final. They've had to go through extra time and penalties. Hopefully that effort will counterbalance the extra recovery time they have over whoever wins tonight.
Now if tonights match goes to extra time and penalties....that will benefit Italy who had to do the same........good that the final is on Sunday not Saturday.
Never in doubt...................cough cough!!!! Thought the Ref was lax tonight as well. Softish penalty for us but it probably was only just. The Ref didn't give two others that were even better shouts. He should have booked a Dane in the first 2 minutes for pulling backk and stopping a break away. That is a booking all day long. Had he done that then the other pull backs by the same player would not have happened. Thought Harry McGuire booking was total rubbish. I couldn't even see a free kick let alone a booking. Thought the Officials would have been better for a semi final. Funny really. Pickford had his worst game of the tournament and Schmichael had his best. The winner was.......the worst one. Funny old game aint it.
Nerve wracking stuff but we just about deserved it. By no means as robust in midfield as against Germany but perhaps that's because they harboured a thought they should beat Denmark whereas Germany were given the respect they deserved. Patience was lacking at times and the shape lost. Can't do that against Italy. Got to feel for Grealish. Came on, made the difference again and subbed off.
I do feel the refereeing has veered too far in the "lax" direction. Just because someone gets injured in a genuine attempt to play the ball it isn't automatically a foul. When there's cynicism though, deliberate trips, blocks or holding to stop an attack, time wasting, diving, feigning injury etc, then the hammer should come down hard. I saw a foul in the Spain-Italy game that I've never seen before, so cynical it stank the whole game out. It's a corner or free kick to Spain, usual jostling for the header. The Italian defender puts his arms around his man ever so briefly, starts to fall over himself, and then releases the arms. They both go down. They happened to be using the flying camera so we were looking down on the incident. Otherwise, we would never have seen anything but 2 players jostling and both going down. No harm, no foul. In fact a key attacker had been taken out at the cost of one defender. Certainly the ref saw nothing. That's what we'll be up against on Sunday.
I was talking to my neighbour today and he mentioned the penalty decision last night. He isn't a fan of football and doesn't normally watch games but he said he was caught up in the moment and put it on as it was important and it was England. His impression was that Sterling just fell over and it shouldn't have resulted in anything. There was "a bit of contact" but not enough to basically knock his grannie over. I had to say that I had this sort of conversation with football watching son quite a few times when watching Argyle. The whole point is that if you do your best to stay on your feet despite being fouled and manage it the Ref plays on and you don't get your foul. Mayor does that quite often when he should fall down. The reason he should fall down is that Refs don't give penalties if you don't. Players have learned this and is why they hit the deck apparently so easily. That is different from diving when not even touched of course. Sterling was fouled, only just but the niggling knock was there from both sides of him. It does seem that the Italians have perfected the art of hitting the deck whether touched or not and once again we are going to have to run the gauntlet of Continental footballers being better than us at it. What I want the Ref to do is make the same decisions in minute one as he would in any other minute of the match. None of this too early to book someone thing or play on regardless. Chances of that happening are? We will see on Sunday but I'm not going to hold breath waiting.
Actually, there are stop-frame pictures circulating that show there WAS contact, not from the first defender but the second, whose right knee pushes Sterling's left knee across into his other leg. It's not clear whether Sterling's still on his feet at that moment but he's still vertical. I don't think I'm being unduly biased if I say that as a minimum even if he did go down easily, he was at least under close physical pressure and it's quite conceivable he just lost his balance. Whether that would make it a penalty is a question for the ref, not Sterling. If it was questionable, it was still very far from the worst dive we've seen in this competition in which there have been many when there was been no contact whatsoever. Much I loath and detest diving and other forms of cheating, I think this one is a storm in a teacup. Then again, it's about time something went for England.... Hand of God... Simeone getting Beckham sent off..... Ronaldo getting Rooney sent off and then winking at the camera.... Lampard's not-a-goal that was 3 feet over the line........... we all have our crosses to bear and Denmark will have to carry this one.
It was checked out slide by slide and deemed a penalty.....so the Ref was confirmed correct in his decision.....had there not been another penalty possibility which looked more definate that had been ignored.....and the match stats were overwelmingly in England's favour......any other result would have been an injustice.....over the years we have come off second best with decisions.....Beckhams tap on Simeone then ....sent off ......Rooney's sending off (Ronaldo's wink to the camera).....all were debateable......you have to go back to 1966 and our friendly Russian linesman who 'confirmed' it had crossed the line...before technology started to take over....Hurst completing his hat-trick sorted that out.
Don't understand why anyone is taking any of the crap being spoken seriously. There is nothing to answer and anyway coming from Italy it makes it even more of a joke. I don't often shout penalty when I'm watching but I did with that one straight away. It looked like a penalty and even still did when I saw the 10,000 slowmo shots after. This is just the Italians playing games which is quite typical of them. n As for was there another penalty shout not given or even looked at? Well yes and I said so in my original post of the game. There was a definite bringing down prior which was an even better shout that the one given. In fact I think there were 2. We won and Denmark lost end of and we move on to the final where Italy can do all of their cheating all over again. It is their gamesmanship that worries me more than their football.
Yep it's a bit of an unfortunate name isn't it. I note the English media are doing what they always do. Flogging it all to death long before a ball is kicked with their constant coverage. Will they never learn. If we do win I can't wait for Boris to claim the winning goal. Any victory speech is bound to include a "we did it" rather than a "they did it".
well this time tomoorw we will be Euro champs have faith and we will beat the italians 2 nil both from kane my money still on it .. so we ned to win Hope your all having a good summer but not the weather, soon be kick off time again in the league ..
Hope you and your's are all well Joe. To be honest I think everyone is now sick and tired of being locked away and not being able to go far. Now we find after all the lock ups that we are heading back to square one virtually with this bloody awful Covid. Think they have given up on the lock ups and now just hope the jabs are not going to allow too many to die. They almost might as well have done that the first time for all the progress made. Fingers crossed for tomorrow but I do wish the media would shut up for 5 minutes. Almost afraid of the jinx. It's going to seem strange going back to live football soon. Think there might be bumper crowds at least to start with.
Possible outcome of tonights game.......England...0-1...Italy. What might happen. 1.....We will have at least one player sent off because of the Italian mastery of the "dark arts". 2.....They will score through fooling the Referee with a dubious penalty....that could be when we get a player sent off. 3.....Once in the lead Italy will shut the game down with numerous "near fatal" injuries.....and of course numerous free kicks. 4.....They will dispute for ages every foul that they commit....so that there will never be any free flowing football. 5.....They will have 70% plus possession and will refuse to commit to any 50/50 situations. Then I woke up in a sweat just as Italy were given the trophy.....do I have to watch this evening.....the Denmark game was bad enough. And if I want to be really cynical....EU opposition and EU Referee (Dutch I think).....means that... no way will we be allowed to win.
England's team fot the Final. Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Trippier, Phillips, Rice, Shaw, Mount, Sterling, Kane.
Italy...0-1...England.......H/T. After 2 minutes it was SHAWWWWWWWW. It could be more....Italy creaking at the back as we break quickly.
Italy...1-1...England....AET. Lost 3-2 on penalties. Why did we have two 18 year olds taking penalties......and two had only been on the pitch for one minute.
