Saving The Best Till Last

Well Spain certainly proved me wrong tonight, in most of their other games in this tournament they seem to have been content with a lot of possession without much of an end product.
But straight from the off they seem determined to kill off Italy having more shots on goal in the first 15 minutes than they managed in the whole game against Portugal.
Italy found their feet in the next 20 minutes and looked like making a game of it but as soon as Jordie Alba put Spain two up with a really good breakaway goal the game was over.

Italy had some bad luck with Chiellini's early injury and Cassano still not fit enough to play the entire game so he went off at half time, then Motta was brought on and within minutes had pulled a hamstring leaving Italy with ten men for the last half hour.
But Italy looked tired from the beginning and just couldn't cope with Spain this time after looking really good in their first meeting a few weeks back.
Spain brought Torres on and it was just a matter of time before they scored again, Torres scored and laid on a goal for late sub Mata to finish it.

Useless fact - Despite 10 of the 14 players being used by Spain being from Barcelona and Real Madrid, the 4 goals were scored by the 3 English based players and Alba who I think is still a Valencia player although he will sign for Barcelona after this tournament.

Bogey Team

The Germans have never beaten the Italians in a major finals and that record continued tonight.
Another quality performance from the Italians putting the highly rated Germans to the sword, a performance which makes England's effort look slightly better because John Terry and Lescott surely wouldn't have made it so easy for Super Mario score his two unchallenged goals.
Balotelli looked very good mainly because the Germans didn't frustrate him like we did, although they did make it slightly harder for Pirlo but forgot that the Italians have other players capable of quality passing.

Joachim Loew must have scoffed more than his usual amount of bogies trying to figure out what he could do, he replaced the frontmen at half time but it didn't really make a difference as one thing the Italians were always good at was defending.

Looking forward to Sunday where hopefully the Italians can turn it on again and beat the dull Spaniards.

Here's Hoping?

Probably the day I made the Italians my second favourite international team.
Still gives me goosebumps :)

Deja Vu

Oh well the dream is over in the usual way as even the Italians manage to beat us on penalties :(
I think after years of us getting knocked out of major championships on penalties I am getting used to this!! the first time in 1990 I was devastated and felt the same way in 96, 98, 2004 but by 2006 it was getting obvious we would blow it and tonight it just seemed inevitable.

 For the first half hour of this game it wasn't looking too bad for us, it was a far more open game than anyone could have guessed, the Italians hit the post early on and Johnson and Wellbeck missed good chances for us.
But for the next 90 minutes it was nearly all Italy and only wasteful shooting from Balotelli and co kept us in it.
John Terry was a wall and Johnson and Lescott also blocked nearly everything thrown at them, Pirlo was controlling everything and even former Hammer Alessandro Diamanti came on and looked good.
Somehow we got to penalties and after Montolivo put it wide there was a hope we could finally win a shoot out, after all the Italians are usually worse than us at penalties but then Ashley Young blasted it against the crossbar and Ashley Cole's tame shot was saved leaving Diamanti to win it.

My Ratings -
Hart 8, Johnson 9, Cole 7, Terry 9, Lescott 8
Parker 8, Gerrard 7, Young 3, Milner 6
Rooney 6, Wellbeck 6
Subs - Walcott 7, Carroll 8, Henderson 6

I didn't change my score for Ashley Young because of the penalty, he was shit all night and for most of the tournament it was just a shame he didn't get a run in the penalty area where he could have used his greatest skill (but we probably would have missed the penalty anyway).

I wish the Italians well against the Germans (as my money has been on them from the start) and reckon they might give the Germans some problems, and as for Spain v Ronaldo it should be the Spanish but you never know?

England showed better as a team this tournament and at times showed they can pass the ball around with the best, but it's obvious we need to find some creative midfielders from somewhere?
Gerrard looked better without Lampard in his way, but sadly his best days are over.
Parker showed he is a better holding midfielder than the overrated Gareth Barry but isn't getting any younger.
Oxlade-Chamberlain looks promising and may be part of a brighter future.
Walcott is hit and miss, six years of inconsistency doesn't look like ending.
Ashley Young seems to have gone back to his Villa days when he could only turn it on against inferior teams and was anonymous against the good sides.
Milner is average, he'll do a job but is never going to win matches single handed.
Henderson who knows? hasn't showed much since his Sunderland days but might get better.
Wilshere was looking good before his injury so hopefully he can come back.

Roll on Brazil 2014!!

Please

Suddenly the expectation levels seem to have risen way above what they should be, I've quite enjoyed it so far putting one over on all the doubters I know and work with.
Now England flags are being flown everywhere and people that were telling me 2 weeks ago we wouldn't make it out of the group are now saying we are going to win the whole thing.

I must admit I am not at all confident today we have played well against Sweden despite the goals we conceded, we were ok against the Ukraine who are an average side but were over defensive against what has turned out to be a piss poor French side, and now we are coming up against the big boys who could find us out?
I will be wearing my lucky England shirt and foregoing the haircut I badly need in the hope it adds some small bit of luck for tonight.

If we get through I actually feel more confident of overcoming the Germans who although looking the best team in the tournament struggled against the Danes who play a bit like England.
So come on England, let's pray for a Balotelli meltdown and some more dodgy decisions in our favour, and keep this dream going :)