Thats an hillarious article.
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You’d have to feel sympathy for them. I honestly think Italy will blow them away Sunday night. England’s media, like their fans, seem to suffer from a collective case of mass delusion.
Like, even trying to suggest Rice is in the same league as Jorginho. Comical.
Before the Germany game I was listening to a few English journalists pick a combined 11 and two of them couldn’t split Declan rice and Toni Kroos.
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2-0 Italy I reckon. Goal with first decent chance, then will sit back and hit on the break. Harry Maguire is too slow to play against teams like that, as he’s repeatedly shown at Manu.
Given the English midfield was marked absent in the sixty odd minutes of the semi final I saw, I simply can’t see a side as cerebral as Italy not controlling things. This English team are like the rubby team. Individually competent, but simply not shrude enough.
Still, all the swimming and running gang here are excited about it, which is nice to see.
There’s no great feeling of occasion otherwise in manc at least.
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You’d have to feel sympathy for England alright, being in the final as they are. I’m sure they’d much rather be in Ireland’s position of having lost at home to Luxembourg.
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The cadre of Irish soccer journalists are umpteen times more delusional that what is in England
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And why shouldn’t they be deluded ? They’re in a final with a chance of winning. You think the italians are any different? They can be an arrogant bunch when it comes to football. I remember years ago talking about Roy Keane to some of them and they couldn’t accept the fact that ireland could produce a top class player and if he wasn’t playing in italy he wasn’t any good. (some truth in that maybe at the time)
I think Italy will shade that sector which psradoxically could be to England’s advantage .
I did think it was rather ironic that a poster who is obviously looking for a coping mechanism to deal with England’s success bears the name of Nottingham Forest and England’s Garry Birtles.
While I’m at it, condolences to Mr. Birtles on the very recent sad passing of his wife.
Hopefully Harry Kane lifting the Henri Delauny trophy tomorrow night will lift his spirits somewhat.
I thought it was a notable factor of the Spain-Italy semi-final that Spain’s midfield dominance somewhat suited Italy. Had Spain sat back a bit more they would have been able to rope a dope the Italians. As it was Italy knew exactly what they had to do and mostly absorbed the pressure fairly comfortably.
Considering Italy didn’t qualify for the last World Cup (to be fair they missed out narrowly to Spain in the qualifying group and then lost to Sweden in a play-off) the transformation under Roberto Mancini has been very impressive. I’d fancy them to win but can’t help but feel that it’s not a vintage Italian team in terms of personnel. The attacking options just aren’t if the same ilk as the team of 2006. But as a team they appear more than the sum of their parts and extremely well coached by international standards. Hopefully age doesn’t catch up with them after a strenuous knockout stages. I still feel that France are the best team in Europe and would have disposed of England 9 times out of 10 if they had crossed paths.
It’s fair to say that they haven’t faced a striker of the calibre of Immobile, he has the runs in behind to trouble him and Stones
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France are France, and pogba is pogba (himself and Raheem sterling are the two coolest footballers out there, but that French side is remarkable. Quite possibly the best international side in the world.
Some buzz around the place, a real sense they are going to do it. Hopefully they get Chiellini going and he gets sent off
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I think Insigne is going to have a very big game tomorrow night. He’s had a superb season and is highly underrated. If he has a big game tomorrow night I think he will end up winning player of the tournament.
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A legend.
A cheat.
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Where will you watch it?
Apples and oranges mate 
No coping mechanism needed. When journalists make humourous claims about various players, I will laugh. It would be wrong not to.
My admiration of Gary Birtles as a player and my cynicism towards a highly overrated England team are mutually exclusive.