Hollis
bloody furious
Yeah - but I'm a romantic - and I see an Italian first-half goal followed by 45 minutes of Italy poncing around and England failing to get within 30 meters of the goal. But of course we've got Ukraine first.
Belgium v Italy - Friday 02/07 - 20:00
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littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
And Denmark/Czechia.
I want Italy in the final. I think England would stand a better chance against Spain, who always have a mistake at the back in them, but I want the best, most exciting teams to watch to get to the final. So that makes me a romantic as well, I think.
Italy showed all round brilliance tonight. They're fast and direct and adventurous going forwards but they haven't forgotten that they're Italian at the back. They're pretty awesome tbh.
Hollis
bloody furious
First England game I can remember is Nov 1977 world cup qualifier - England 0, Italy 2. England effectively out of the world cup. My 8 year old self was outraged - lots of Italians poncing around.. Just looked up the game and the Italians put alot of effort into taking out Kevin Keegan. That must be it...
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Every team nobbled the opposition threats back then. Football has improved.
The most likely outcome right now is an Italy-England final with Italy winning it. Not greater than 50% chance, but the most likely of all the permutations. That would represent a really good competition for England. Only the second major final ever.
The most likely outcome right now is an Italy-England final with Italy winning it. Not greater than 50% chance, but the most likely of all the permutations. That would represent a really good competition for England. Only the second major final ever.
They're a good football team. And even better actors.
It's pretty disgusting they were allowed to run the clock down like that. I don't know why in football they don't just stop the clock like they do in other sports rather than relying on someone else keeping count on their watch.
There should have been far more than five minutes.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
Get back to the cricket.
strung out
💩 🤣 🍆 💦 🧐 👻 🐝 🐈⬛
The thing that makes Italy so good is that they've basically got the best manager in the tournament - most others have done next to fuck all in club football, which doesn't particularly matter in tournament football until you come up against someone like Mancini. He's done an incredible job with them.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
The romantic in me has a soft spot for Martinez at club level. Kept Wigan up for a couple of seasons against the odds, and won the FA Cup, playing to his philosophy of football. Not Mancini level, perhaps, but a bit better than next to fuck all. Not sure he's done too much wrong with Belgium.
I had £28 on belgium. I've got a right to be pissed off.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
Second best
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Great teams don't lose possession by using those methods. I didn't see much out of the ordinary last night that you wouldn't see in the English leagues or anywhere else tbh
Flavour
hang the bankers
Martinez also cost Mancini his job at Man City by beating us (City) in that FA Cup Final
So a sort of revenge.
Anyway I watched the game last night in a square in Genoa and the Italians fan laugh and cheer when their players go down in stoppage time, they find it hilarious. It's very cynical but as JTG says it's hardly exclusive to them. They are good at it though.
In the Spain - Switzerland game a Swiss player very deliberately kicked the ball away when Spain were awarded a free kick in the dying seconds. He knew what he was doing and it earned him a booking but it takes time out of the game and allows the team time to get into position by preventing a quick free kick so it was worth doing in his calculation.
I've seen visiting sides time wasting by taking ages over goal kicks etc relatively early in the game. We've heard benches give instructions to players to stay down. I've seen ball boys - obviously acting under instruction - not move a muscle to collect a ball a few feet from them and instead make the opposing side's player cover a long distance to collect it. All of that in the English lower leagues.
The Italians (and Argentinians and others) are just more honest to themselves that this goes on. 'Fair play' is an English conceit and utterly hypocritical on our part
I've seen visiting sides time wasting by taking ages over goal kicks etc relatively early in the game. We've heard benches give instructions to players to stay down. I've seen ball boys - obviously acting under instruction - not move a muscle to collect a ball a few feet from them and instead make the opposing side's player cover a long distance to collect it. All of that in the English lower leagues.
The Italians (and Argentinians and others) are just more honest to themselves that this goes on. 'Fair play' is an English conceit and utterly hypocritical on our part
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planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Ref played seven. Italian pissing about was all counted for. And no, they aren't the only ones who do it, but they did seem to do it to an extreme last night. I reckon at least five bullets were fired at them from the crowd.
Steel Icarus
ersatz maven
Mrs SI said "why didn't he go off" when Spinazzola went down - he was next to the touchline. Aside from the fact he'd fucked his achilles, going down on the pitch means you get treated there rather than the game going on without you/having a chance to be subbed off. It also gives everyone a chance to have a breather at the end of a relentless match.
Also allows more time for the coach to adapt to an unexpected substitution and give instructions to the man coming on
It's not just about stopping the game - the ref can always add time on obviously - it's about interrupting the opposition's rhythm, playing it at your pace rather than theirs etc. Game management. As I said, it's about ensuring a winning position is maintained and why not in a high stakes knock out.
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