London: The chant from England supporters, ‘Football is coming home’, that rang through the air for weeks with much anticipation, proved to be premature. The hype was unprecedented and expectation of achieving glory turned to bitter disappointment with their team going down to Italy, 3-2, on penalties after a goal by each side during normal and extra time of the Euro 2020 final.
England manager, Gareth Southgate, said: “Our players have done themselves proud, but I’m unbelievably disappointed to not go that one step further. When you have been in a semi-final (last World Cup) and now final, it’s a step in the right direction. When you’ve been so close it’s even more painful. Tonight, the devastation of coming so close to giving the country the trophy is hard to put in context.”
He further said: “As a manager you have to accept whenever there is a defeat there is a lot of analysis. I need time to reflect on all of that. We make hundreds of decisions, not all of it will be right and I have to accept that.”
Southgate’s choice of penalty takers did seem strange. He said: “We worked on it in training and that’s the order we came to.” He brought on substitutes Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho for the extra time period with a view for them to take penalties if it came to it, while 19-year-old Bukayo Saka came on 15 minutes before end of normal time. All three missed their spot kicks with the inexperienced Saka having to take the crucial last kick.
Earlier, England had got off to a dream start taking the lead in less than two minutes. Luke Shaw started and finished the move. He passed to Harry Kane in midfield who moved up to find Kieran Trippier on the right. Shaw had run up on the left and received the cross from Trippier which he hit on the half volley to score off the inside of the near post. With over 60,000 inside the stadium, it thundered at such a sensational start.
Italy were taking time to settle while England enjoyed long periods of ball possession though both sides had chances that were wasted with both goalkeepers being kept busy making saves. It wasn’t until midway through the second half that Italy began to apply serious pressure. They could have equalised in the 57th minute when Lorenzo Insigne forced an excellent save from Jordan Pickford and in the 62nd minute a shot from Federico Chiesa was pushed away.
The equaliser finally came in the 67th minute with a corner coming to Marco Verratti whose header was pushed on to the post but Leonardo Bonnucci was quick to react in the goalmouth scramble to put the ball into the net. Italy were now in some control and could have scored again but Domenico Berardi, having gone past England’s defence, shot over.
With both sides tiring, the nail-biting extra time brought no benefit to either and the dreaded penalties followed. Italy missed the first attempt but the next three went in before missing the last. England smashed the first two powerfully before the third hit a post and the last two were saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma who was also awarded the player of the tournament trophy.
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