Football4Mates: Five decades of euro pain is over. Italia!!

What an exceptional tournament, and how fitting that our new Euro Archon, who has gallantly tried to be a diplomat between a classic European football rivalry which boiled over in the lead up to this titanic final, tipped a 1-1 final result. Over the month this well-mannered football observer has made some wise calculations, arguable none better than a prediction for the Final; may you bask in the glory over the next 12 months Yianni, for no doubt you will be back trying to be the first to win the double at next year's World Cup. Well done to Dung who till the semi-finals was pushing Yianni. And Angelique, who in her first tournament came a very respectful equal third. Equal, for her Bapou, Stylianos made a late surge by also predicting a 1-1 finish. Great stuff! As mentioned, what a tournament, and what an incredible final. Congratulations to Mancini's Italy and its wonderful supporters throughout the world. The pain of having two previous finals (2000 and 2012), the wait of fifty-three years, plus the humiliation of not qualifying for the last World Cup is finally over. There was not too much expectation for this team in the lead-up to this tournament, nor did their fans overburden their players with hype once they made their way to the final, despite, once again, fifty-three years of wait. Del-Piero said following England's victory over Denmark, that despite England having the better squad, the Italians would have preferred the home team to be in the final due to the pressures that come with being the home side. Commiserations to Gareth Southgate and his fantastic squad of players, and particularly to the three young men who were unfortunate with their penalty efforts, and are now being subjected to racial abuse by 'those' fans. There is no point talking about the game here for there are more qualified people that have, and will no doubt continue to ponder on the how's. For the English media, it will be more of a case of days, weeks, months, and most probably, years analysing the 'what ifs'. Personally, the fantastic use of wingbacks which resulted in the fastest goal in Euro Finals history turned out to be a ball and chain for England. The unfortunate injury of Federico Chiesa late in the second half when the screws were being tightened on an impressive England defence, arguably ended Italian chances of closing up the game early. Instead, fans had to endure the agony of the penalty shootout. I was shown the impressive stats following the Spain v Italy semi-finals, so I thought of returning the gesture. The statistics which came out of today's match: Possession: Italy 61% to 39%; Pass Success Accuracy 89% to 75%; Total Goal Attempts 19 to 6; On target 6 to 2. Blocked Shots 4 to 1.

Onto the World Cup (November 21 December 18) in Qatar which will host 32 teams battling it out in 8 groups. It is fair to say that Italy will be flying into the tournament with higher expectations from its fans, while other teams such as the French, will need to sort out some of their niggling internal issues. Spain needs a striker, and fast, Portugal to have Jota passing to Ronaldo, Germany, well who cares but they will be there nevertheless, and England, well what can I say, sure, of course they can come, for xenia stipulates that we welcome everyone to the World Game 😉. Hope to see you all in November 2022. Don't forget to get vaccinated. Good night.