The Final: England v Italy

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Agreed and as I said earlier Southgate didn't change things when we were pegged back for much of the second half

[Hunk]

But rightly or wrongly he chose to step up. The penalties are what they are, our conservatism and not kicking on is what cost us.

If Sterling or Graelish wanted to take the decision away from him, I’m sure they could have insisted (could be completely wrong about that assertion)

[Sippo]

Italy were the better side for the last 60 mins. England did well and should be proud. Feel for saka. 19 years old. Hopefully won't affect him too much mentally.

[4D]

Yep, we sat back too much. Italy are very good but we made them look so much better. Like they were camped in our half for the last 70 mins of the first 90. They were always going to score if given enough opportunities. Big mistake. When we pushed they were uncomfortable. We should have put them under a lot more pressure in the second half. That cost us.

[Nemo]

Five years ago Iceland happened. We've come so far in that time. The building blocks are there, the system is working. Keep the faith.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I think we lost the tactical battle not just on penalties

[4D]

As I said earlier, World Cup SF in 2018, finalists in Euro 2020. Great stuff. Just need to finish the job. Football is coming home even if the cup is a little way behind 

[Batch]

Did well and should be proud

But tonight was about winners and losers. We lost. Not got another 55 years to wait for another crack.

it's a bit raw now, I'm sure everyone will look back at our last 2 competitions as the successes they were

but we were so so bloody close

[Jimmy HaveHave]

What frustrates me is we could have won if we had changed personnel and attacked them 

[Stef Troll]

It’s hard to get up the pitch when you have 34% possession in the game. England played 7 defensive players and 3 attacking players. Against better quality teams it’s always going to be hard

[Moss]

Italy were the best team in the tournament. We went further than Belgium, France, Spain etc. Got to be happy with that. More importantly for me we had a unified team and fan base that represented an England of today - celebrated our diversity and hopefully banished forever the right wing meat head support England teams had to put up with in the past. Well played boys.

[4D]

We had 34% possession because we sat too deep. Italy were good but not exceptional. On the back foot they looked poor.

[Bogus Dave]

It’s disappointing, but how many of that squad will be gonners by next Christmas??

France won in 2018 after losing the 2016 final
Germany won in 2014 after losing the 2010/12 semis

I think there’s valid criticism for being too defensive in today’s final, but the ambition was always semis in 2020, win 2022. Were on track

[DiV]

I don’t thing England necessarily choose to sit deep. Italy just pushed us back. It was possibly the right decision to be compact and not lose the game.
However, once Chiesa went off - that was when we should have opened the game up. He was by far and away Italy’s main threat. All their attacks came through him.

We definitely should have gone for it in extra time. It was there to be won in that window imo.

No clue on the process behind picking penalty takers. Do they volunteer? Does Southgate pick his best 5 from training? It was strange to put two players on for a minute to take penalties. Even with the best warm up they aren’t in the game and haven’t had touches of the ball. If they’d played the last 15 would that have made a difference either to the result in extra time or their penalties?

A lot of people questioning why the more experienced players didn’t take the penalties but when you think about the only really experienced players on the pitch who didn’t take one were Sterling & Stones!

[4D]

Italy didn't allow us to play, but we should have done the same to them. We didn't.