Interpolic

When I saw Italy were kicking first I feared the worst. That clearly gives teams a huge psychological advantage. FIFA/UEFA seem intent on messing with many of football's rules the last few years, so for them to abandon the ABBA system so early is quite perplexing. The current setup for penalty shootouts is still a pretty big problem that needs to be addressed.

Depressing reading it all collated like that. I think the problem over the years has been at least a little bit cultural, a perception that bravery is defending for your lives, throwing yourself in to block shots, withstanding outrageous pressure from the opposition. When in fact it's far braver to continue posing an attacking threat, without going gung ho. Last night we didn't even have a Gazza in ET moment, there was the ball that was inches away from Stones' head tbf but that was about it.

There was a prevailing issue with the subs in the knockouts where Southgate was unwilling to take Sterling or Kane off, and also unwilling to to have anything less than 7 defence-minded players on the field. Arguably 8 or 9 defence-minded players when Saka and Mount seemed to be mainly in for their defensive discipline. That limits us massively in terms of who we can bring on, and meant last night we had Rashford and Sancho sat on the bench for ET instead of attacking tired Italian defenders. Contrast that with Italy who were willing to change their entire front 3. Sterling should have been off tbh as he was quiet all game and we weren't even keeping him on to take one of the pens.

exactly what I meant when I said last night unfortunately reverted to a typical old school England performance. It's a shame because the magnitude of the position we were in didn't seem to dawn on the players until about half an hour in.

Maybe the plan was to mirror the Germany game and make it a bit of a non-event for 60 or 70 minutes then go for it late on. In which case the early goal actually negated a lot of our preparation. We looked dangerous every time we attacked them early on and should have probed further, whether it was instructions from Southgate or nerves or a lack of intelligence or experience on the pitch that made us invite them on, who knows. It was crap though, really crap.

I don't understand our approach for much of the game tonight. The first 20 minutes we looked like we had their number but then we started holding back. The panic defending started in the first half under minimal pressure and when we held on to the ball we seemed happy to eventually lose it rather than test them. Was hugely safety-first when we had them rattled and as it turns out it was a massive missed opportunity. The second half was just dreadful all round and the trouble with trying to batten down the hatches and hang on to a goal you scored in the 2nd minute is that if you concede then you're fucked. You have zero attacking rhythm to build on and it's not possible to just switch that on when required. I was pleasantly surprised with the upturn in intensity in ET but it was too little too late and psychologically we'd given Italy a huge advantage by then by showing them far too much respect. We had them looking ordinary first half then absolutely invited them back into the game. The momentum was theirs because we handed it to them. I'm not going to criticise Southgate for the late subs as if those 2 were banging pens in in training then it's understandable to go with the knowledge you have. Same with Saka although having him 5th seems shortsighted. Tbh I think it's a waste of time hyper-analysing the penalties, we will have selected our best takers and practised them extensively and that's just the way it goes. One team has to lose. But did we express ourselves anywhere near as well as we can during the 120 minutes, did we impose ourselves on the Italians or did we hand them the initiative? I think it's clearly the latter and that's the disappointment for me. There was a chance in the first half to build on an excellent start but we didn't back ourselves and thought winning ugly was the only way. A risk that didn't pay off. Euro 2020 was a success for us overall without a doubt but the performance tonight leaves a sour taste. A shame as this group of players have shown some real bravery in recent years, they just needed to back themselves tonight (players and manager) and in my view they didn't do that.

This is spot on. We didn't deserve to win tonight which softens the blow slightly. Still devo'ed though. Was a typical England performance in a big game, unfortunately. Dominated early then gave into fear and fucked it.

Unbelievable start and pretty solid since then. Hope Southgate is calming them down a bit, the defending is unnecessarily desperate at times and these lot look vulnerable when we show composure on the ball. Come on.

I'd snap your hands off for a 24 hour postponement tbh.

Basically yeah. I'm embarrassed by those scenes but putting them to the back of my mind until next week.

Hang on, I thought England were the diving shithouses.

Aww thanks

Well I disagree with Southgate’s selection yet again if that's true but fuck it, what do I know

When the wrong stripes are white And the sponsor looks shite That's Castore

If you leave the invading bit out I think what he's getting at is that WW2 is what has added an edge to the fixture with Germany historically. Still probably doesn't need said, but he's not really wrong.

something like this would have been better. The concept of having it in different countries was OK as a novelty, although a bit iffy with the Covid situation. UEFA clearly didn't consider the signficant travel disparity properly though, which is what made this setup a bit unfair.

looks like a shoegaze album cover.

the Brazilians can only dream of getting to a European Championship final.

^ The Italians doing their pre-match N-O browse and spotting Pata's avatar.

Denmark's free kick wasn't a free kick, there was a foul on Kane that should have been a penalty, Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany at their own World Cup. Swings and roundabouts innit.

Wagwan with the raglan

Dislike.