You must have a short memory. 4 boring 1-0 victories in the knockout stages. 8 goals in 7 games.
Yawn.
I doubt if the Italy team of 1968 could be classed as average. They played in the World Cup final of 1970 and were beaten by the greatest international football team ever to kick a football.
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They were beaten by North Korea and had rotten tomatoes thrown at them.
In 1966. In 1970 they got to the final beating hosts Mexico and then a German team that were 1966 WC finalists, 1972 European champions and 1974 WC champions. Iād say they were pretty decent.
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You discard 1966 so you automatically discard 1970. Italy ābeatā the USSR in 1968 on a coin toss and only had to beat a little fancied Yugoslavia at home in the final. Not exactly one of the great title wins.
The current Italian team are possibly nearer average than outstanding . They are a fine side but far from world beaters .
Hon Fulvio
World Cup winner Fulvio Collovati slammed the English media for being āarrogant and only knowing about their own football,ā while England defenders had a nightmare against Federico Chiesa.
The Azzurri won UEFA EURO 2020 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening.
āThe English media only know about their own football, not the international game. I get the impression they know very little about football outside of England, they are very insular,ā 1982 star Collovati told Calciomercato.com.
āPerhaps this is why they were surprised by Italy at the Euros. They are presumptuous, opinionated, arrogant. Instead, the humility of Roberto Manciniās side managed to barge everyone aside.ā
Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but are now unbeaten in 34 games and have been crowned the Champions of Europe.
An old-school defender, Collovati sees problems at the back for England compared to Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci.
āIt was clear from this game how defenders ought to defend. England had an early goal, maybe one or two attempts after that, but nothing more.
āI worry that nowadays they are not teaching how to defend with your posture, how to place yourself when one-on-one with a player who is right or left-footed.
āJust look at how easily Chiesa got away from the English defenders. Clearly, heās quick, but all he needed to do was shift the ball and run, because the defenders had their posture all wrong.
āItās about anticipating the movement in these situations, and Chiellini is old-school, he knows how to do that. They donāt teach these basics that were the fundamentals of defending in my day.ā
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Iād see it as a great team on an upward curve.
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The humility of Roberto Manciniās side?
I havenāt seen much humility since they won it - quite the opposite, especially from Bonucci
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Is this Italy team the first international side to lift the trophy after drawing both the semi final and final? Maybe itās happened somewhere along the line in the prestigious Copa America.
I donāt know but to be fair to them they won the tournament in accordance with the rules.
I will say one thing - they were very very lucky to get a draw versus Austria in normal time
Maybe when you win a tournament which is set up for the home side to win; when you get to the final against that team with 60,000 English nationalists fired up with the expectation - no the entitlement - that theyād win - maybe, just maybe, your humility might just give way to a wee bit of ā¦ āFUCK YOUā
That quirky rule of soccer that has a lottery to declare a winner in a match thatās ended in a draw.
There are now shoot outs in GGA , and rugby
I think Italy are the first team to ever win 2 penalty shoot outs in the same international competition
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Argentina 1990 and Croatia 2018 did.
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Has there ever been a knock out GAA Championship match, a World Cup rugby match or a British Lions test decided by a penalty shoot out?
It would be nice to see finals of major tournaments have provision for a replay.
The European Cup final of 1974, Bayern Munich v Atletico Madrid was replayed after a 1-1 draw. Bayern after scoring a 120th minute equaliser in the drawn game, won the replay 4-0.
Iām not sure when they did away with the provision for a replay. The next final to even go to extra time after that was in 1984 and that ultimately resulted in the first penalty shoot out in a final.
They drew 3 of their 4 knockout games ā¦