Italy and England zoom to Wembley for a final struggle.

almost 3 years ago

Firstly, I'm so happy I got to predict the final and it happened just the way I predicted it. Spain and Denmark aren't so bad so far in the tournament but based on personal analysis and personal wants, I predicted and wanted Italy and England to proceed to the finals.

SEMIFINALS SAGA!

The Semifinals actually stronger than I expected, I expected more goals in the match between Italy and Spain, even though I knew and expected a draw, I was expecting the draw to be with more and much goals. I knew Italy would play with so much caution whereby their attacking strength would be almost the same with their defensive strength but then, I expected Spain to be more offensive and to do more of the attack lunching.

Spain actually played fine but I would have rated them more if only they were able to savage a goal in the first half. Personally, when the game remained goalless, I assumed Italy to be the winning team automatically because they had this perfect coordination in their defense and that actually made it more difficult for Spain to dominate even in the attacking positions.

To have had the match prolonged to a penalty shootout actually shows how much depths both teams possess and were willing to show in the match. And personally, not for any crucial reason but whenever I see a team like this current Italy team taking a penalty shootout, I do have this confidence in them that they'll eventually win and they actually promised me in the shootout against Spain.

For the fact that Italy lost their first penalty taken by Locatelli, I thought it was going to place the whole team under a great pressure but maybe the fact that Olmo also lost Spain's first penalty brought about the hefty confidence in the Italian team and their shootouts were just so accurately deposited behind the net.

Morata had a very dicey night with Spain in the semifinals as he was just able to help the team make it to the extra time but then, he wasn't able to keep the team in the tournament by scoring his penalty. If only Morata had scored, it could have been something more difficult for Italy but with the loss by Morata and Jorginho having to play the final penalty for Italy was just a vivid victory for Italy because Jorginho is indeed a crazy penalty specialist!

England actually played below my expectations in the semifinals against Denmark. I expected England to be able to secure more goals in that much but something seems quite wrong with the way Southgate manages the English Boys.

Southage has been a huge fan of three attackers upfront and that has kept the likes of Saka, Sancho, and especially Sterling pitch runners, at times this pattern works out but in some matches whereby the opponent has a very heavy midfield, I do not expect a coach with a solid squad as England not to take full strength in the midfield.

In the match against Denmark, it was quite painful to see Denmark taking more strength out of the midfield and yet England kept running upfront with less attacking and shot accuracies. Aside the beautiful free kick goal Denmark had, they actually played so well and utilized their chanced more accurately compared to England.

Overtime, in the tournament so far, I didn't really see Denmark miss Erikson so much it he was really needed in the semifinals against England, if only he was available, I'm quite sure it would have been a very tough thing for England considering the fact that Denmark scored first but that's just football, it favoured England in the end.

Would England triumph over Italy in the final?

As it is now, I really preferred England to lift the trophy but sincerely, I really don't find it easy to trust England, the nature of the teams doesn't possess consistency like Italy does, one could think they would be so fantastic in the final only find them lagging behind so crazy in the match.

Italy is really a solid team and I'm sure they'll definitely make it a very tough one for Southgate but I feel if Southgate would play a 4-4-2 formation with Calvert-lewin and Kane upfront and having four midfielders would really make the game a great opportunity for England to make many out box shootings which they have many and enough machineries for.

Italy has a solid defense line but if England can earn more out box shots to themselves, a deflection for goal could be possible and even a straight shot in could be possible too, but I do not find it easy to want to believe that England would triumph over Italy by trying to play and use the ball in Italy's goal post and its so painful to know that that's eventually or exactly what England would play tomorrow.

I can't say much than to wait and see or watch how the whole thing would be going down at Wembley tomorrow but trust me, with all my heart, I really wish and pray England wins the Cup.