Italy fans came to tournament with low expectations, but their team’s unity and focus have impressed
Celebrations erupted across Italy as the national football team secured their win in the Euro 2020 final after a tense penalty shoot-out.
“It’s a unique emotion,” said Vincenzo Francavilla. “There’s such a big love for Italy.”
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Here’s a thing: if England get a penalty today, what will Harry Kane do (assuming he is not too injured by his fall to take it...). His spotkick against Denmark was awful, though the rebound favoured him. He explained afterwards that he intended to send it high but, for some reason, didn’t connect properly and his shot travelled low. The obvious explanation for that uncharacteristic miss is that he was under more pressure than ever before. As one of the figureheads of his country, the pressure is more intense on him than almost anyone else. L’Equipe today carried an interview with Geir Jordet, a Norwegian researcher who has studied the history of penalty-taking at tournament (club and international) as far back as 1976 and he has found that as a player’s status rises, his efficiency of penalties falls: “When a player has become an international superstar, he only scores from 65% of his attempts, compared to 90% before he reaches that status (especially by winning an individual award [ such as the Golden Boot]),” says Jordet. Golly. Maybe if today’s game goes to a shootout, England should bring on Aaron Ramsdale, if only to take one.
The pubs are open in England .... pace yourselves, drinkers! Brace yourselves, everyone else.
Continue reading...• Woman had hair pulled by ‘six or seven’ England fans
• Also claims of Denmark fans being spat on at Wembley
A Denmark supporter who attended Wednesday’s Euro 2020 semi-final at Wembley says she was physically assaulted by England fans as she made her way home after the game.
Jeanette Jorgensen, who has lived in west London for 15 years, went with three cousins after obtaining tickets through the Danish Football Association (DBU).
Continue reading...Do you know your Ant from your Dec and your Three Lions from your Atomic Kitten? Find out with our tricky and slightly silly quiz
They are the soundtrack to our summers of joy and despair. The songs that accompany the moments when our hearts soar as goals go in, and break as crucial penalties are missed. But how much do you know about the football tournament anthems that fans sing with such glee? Find out with our football anthems quiz – getting full marks is going to be harder than getting a ticket for Wembley on Sunday. But remember, it is just for fun, and unlike the forthcoming Italy v England Euro 2020 final, there are no prizes.
The Guardian Euro 2020 football anthems quiz
Continue reading...St George’s flags featuring surnames of almost every person in England will fly from heritage sites to cheer on team
Harry Kane can trace his surname back to a word for “warrior”. Declan Rice to “impetuous”. Kieran Trippier to “dance”. Kyle Walker will have to make do with “trampler of cloth in a bath of lye” which, to be fair, was once a very important job.
English Heritage is getting in the football spirit by revealing the origins of the names of the England players. It will also fly a St George’s flag featuring the surname of almost every person living in England at its properties to help cheer on the team before Sunday’s Euro 2020 final against Italy.
Continue reading...Italians are excited for the Euro 2020 final against England: ‘If we play with the heart, we will win’
Tens of thousands of English football fans at Wembley tried to send a message to Italy on Wednesday night: Sunday’s Euro 2020 final will be hell for the Azzurri. Italians heard the deafening cheers of the home support loud and clear, but that chant, “It’s coming home”, screamed at the top of English lungs does not seem to have affected them greatly. They are far from intimidated.
“It’s coming home? Maybe the English fans meant ‘it’s coming to Rome’,” said Giovanni Mapelli, 14, from Monticello Brianza, near Milan, who plays for a local football team. Since England won a place in the final, he and his brother have been mocking his England-born-and-raised mother.
Continue reading...Uefa has charged England after a laser pointer was shone in the face of the Denmark goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, as he was about to face Harry Kane’s penalty in Wednesday’s Euro 2020 semi-final at Wembley.
Schmeichel saved the penalty but Kane scored from the rebound to set up England’s 2-1 victory and book a place in Sunday’s final against Italy.
Continue reading...Footballers now have to match the ‘immortals of 1966’ after reaching their first final for 55 years
The joy of England’s footballers reaching a major final for the first time in 55 years is given due justice on the front pages of the papers – along with a sense of relief that the team finally managed to do the job.
The Mirror’s headline is simply “Finally” noting that Harry Kane’s winning goal means that “after 55 years of hurt Harry and his heroes beat the Danes … now to match the heroes of 1966”.
Continue reading...Sometimes, your luck is just in, you catch a break when you most need it and, after so much major tournament semi-final heartache, England finally got something to go their way and, in the process, one of these suffocatingly high-tension encounters to follow suit.
The 90 minutes had been nerve-shredding, England forced to find a response to Mikkel Damsgaard’s stunning 25 yard free-kick on the half-hour, which they did when Bukayo Saka’s cross, intended for Raheem Sterling, was bundled over Denmark’s goal-line by their captain, Simon Kjær.
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8 min: Spain aren’t dealing particularly well with Italy’s high press at the moment. Busquets, Garcia and Azpilicueta take turns to hesitate over clearances, nearly allowing the livewire Verratti in on a couple of occasions. Verratti is snapping away at their heels like billy-o. It’s very impressive, though you already get the sense he’s one mistimed lunge away from trouble.
6 min: Spain get a foot on the ball for the first time in the match, and stroke it around the back awhile. Italy’s fans give them the bird. All good pantomime stuff.
Continue reading...Nation with Hans Christian Andersen-inspired football song is hoping for fairytale win against England
People dancing on buses is not something you see every day in Denmark. Rule-abiding Danes tend to keep their celebrations low-key – but not this summer.
Football fans brought traffic to a standstill in Aarhus after Denmark beat the Czech Republic in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals and even scaled public transport to broadcast their euphoria and belt out another round of Re-sepp-ten – first a hit for Denmark’s national team at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The anthem’s crowd-sourced lyrics are laden with Hans Christian Andersen imagery and feel particularly apt this year.
Continue reading...Foreign-based fans slept in cars and even planned marriage proposals to be at the scene of Euro 2020 quarter final
They came from Berne, Berlin, Luxembourg and Dubai, some forgoing a night’s sleep as they drove across the Alps or took red-eye flights. Some of the more ardent football fans bought tickets two years ago; others bagged them in the last-minute rush that followed England’s historic win over Germany on Tuesday.
They were rewarded with an extraordinary, emphatic, exhilarating 4-0 victory over Ukraine, and those inside the stadium sang till their voices gave out.
Continue reading...Harry Kane back to his lethal best, productivity from set pieces, yet another clean sheet – the fifth out of five at Euro 2020 – and, for the coup de grace, a first England goal for Jordan Henderson on the occasion of his 62nd cap. This was the night when pretty much everything was picture perfect for Gareth Southgate and his players as they set up a Wembley semi-final against Denmark on Wednesday night.
As England came home from Rome it was easy to wonder whether football was headed in the same direction and, certainly, the fans of the team who had made it from across mainland Europe into the Stadio Olimpico thought that way.
Continue reading...A couple of beauties from Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne saw off Belgium’s golden generation
Jonathan Wilson was in Munich to witness this fine match in person. His report has just landed ... and here it is. Get clicking, people. Congratulations to Italy, commiserations to Belgium, and thanks to you all for reading this MBM. Hope to see you again tomorrow. Nighty night!
Related: Barella and Insigne break Belgium to send Italy through to semi-final
The one downer for Italy - and it’s a big one - is the loss to injury of the hamstrung Leonardo Spinazzola. The marauding left-back has been one of the sensations of the tournament, so entertaining to watch in full flight, and one of those nice late-blooming career stories to boot. His presence will be missed, though you’d still back these exciting Italians to see off unconvincing Spain at Wembley next week. But it’s tournament football, so, well, y’know.
Related: Leonardo Spinazzola: Italy’s frequent flyer down the left flank
Continue reading...After disappointment in past tournaments, there has never been as good a time to be a Ukraine fan
Kyiv doesn’t look like a city gripped by Euro 2020 fever. Take a walk through Ukraine’s capital on a non-game day and there are few banners or flags to suggest the national team is on a historic run to its first quarter-finals of a European football championship.
But scratch the surface and you’ll find a city of diehards. “I’m set for a Ukraine victory,” said Andriy, 29, the head of a marketing agency, outside the popular Espressoholic cafe in the Podil district. “I know, of course, that England are stronger, but I want to believe.”
Continue reading...Press criticises outgoing coach Joachim Löw for selection and tactics, tempered with praise for opponents’ ‘efficiency’
For England, Tuesday’s 2-0 win ended a 55-year jinx against a side they had repeatedly failed to edge past in the knockout rounds of major tournaments. But for Germany, too, the defeat at Wembley marked the end of an era.
“The Euros were meant to be a dignified send-off for national coach Joachim Löw,” said Boris Büchler in a comment for broadcaster ZDF. In his first 10 years in charge of Germany’s national team, Löw had taken his sides at least to the semi-final of every tournament they participated in. In 2014, he came home from Rio de Janeiro with the World Cup.
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45+1 min: A dreadful pass by Thomas Muller is intercepted by Sterling, who advances through the centre. He charges forwards and is tackled on the edge of the Germany penalty area. The ball squirts towards Kane, who looks like he can’t miss ... but Mats Hummels sticks out a leg and relieves him of possession as he tries to take the ball around Neuer. That was close!
45 min: Kalvin Phillips gets booked for a meaty challenge on Toni Kroos. Both England’s holding midfielders are on yellow cards.
Continue reading...Kylian Mbappé was France’s sure thing. That is why he was fifth in their list of penalty takers and is why, when he stepped up to keep them in Euro 2020, the thought he might miss felt like too heady a twist in the narrative. Things like that have simply not happened to Mbappé during a young career of rare accomplishment, but here came the kind of horror that exposes even the preternaturally gifted as flesh-and-blood mortals: Yann Sommer, Switzerland’s exceptional goalkeeper, smelled weakness and read his intentions correctly, diving right and clawing the spot-kick away. France were out; their delirious opponents had made their own slice of history and a tournament of unstinting drama took its least plausible turn yet.
Related: ‘He is very affected by it’: Deschamps defends Mbappé as France crash out
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The Dutch started vibrantly but the organised and athletic Czechs gradually grew into the game and it’s now very even between two contrasting side. I mentioned the Czechs famous win over the Netherlands at Euro 2004; well, that Czech team ultimately lost to Greece; and this Czech team has certain similarities with those Greeks. This is tricky for the Dutch.
Related: Revealed: shocking scale of Twitter abuse targeting England at Euro 2020
Related: Can Belgium’s world-beaters win a major trophy? It may be now or never | Jonathan Liew
Related: France hoping for a grand statement from Kylian Mbappé
45+2 min: Lovely move by the Netherlands, with virtually every player getting a touch. When it reaches Depay in the box, he rolls past Kalas at the right-hand side of the box and flips a pass through to van Aanholt ... who drags his shot wide from nine yards! Oh, he was offside anyway.
Continue reading...What a white knuckle ride this was and how fortunate, in the end, Germany can consider themselves to have reached the last 16. They will play England at Wembley on Tuesday and it may either gratify or worry Gareth Southgate that another display like this would render their chances extremely slim. Surely they can only improve on a night’s work
When Andras Schafer headed them back ahead a minute after Kai Havertz cancelled out Adam Szalai’s opener, they looked bound to send the home side packing. But Leon Goretzka’s equaliser transformed the picture and staved off the ignominy of repeating Germany’s group stage exit of Russia 2018.
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