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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2021 5:47:41 GMT
How much blame does Gareth Southgate deserve for England's penalty-shootout defeat against Italy in the Euro 2020 final? Nedum Onuoha, Steve Nicol, Frank Leboeuf and Alejandro Moreno join Dan Thomas on ESPN FC and enter into a lively debate about the players selected to take the penalty kicks, the decision to sub players on late just for penalties and much more. 0:00 Comments from Southgate, Roy Keane and Jack Grealish after the penalty shootout. 1:30 Onuoha explains England's approach to selecting players to take the penalties. 2:54 Why is Bukayo Saka taking the fifth penalty? 3:45 Should Grealish have been one of the first five penalty takers? 5:30 How to decide which players take the penalties. 9:13 Southgate's decision to sub in Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho in the 120th minute. A devastating loss by the England team, following a campaign of overblown hype, has become a feature of modern international football competitions many around the world enjoy witnessing. In this respect, the Euro 2020 final did not disappoint. “It’s coming home,” English media and pundits had declared. Even weathermen had been conscripted into the national service, making comparisons with weather conditions during the 1966 World Cup final, the last time the England team had made it to the last game in a major international tournament. Many times, though, this English fixation on winning a football trophy can also come across as dark bewilderment at unfulfilled destiny – an extension of the idea that the English were born to dominate the world. Sure, the same could be said about Brazil and the stories of fans getting heart attacks following losses at the World Cup. But Brazil did not sail around the world brutalising and pillaging societies while presenting itself as the pinnacle of human achievement. The English are being judged through the lens of their history. Other former colonial powers also participated in Euro2020. The Spanish, French, Belgians and Portuguese have similarly terrible histories and have arguably behaved just as badly. However, their ability to project their voices in today’s global media is much smaller than that of the British, who, along with their American cousins, can outshout anyone. The media megaphone means people around the world, and especially in the English-speaking world, are constantly assaulted with British and English self-portrayals that many times run counter to their lived experiences of domination and colonisation.
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2021 22:40:49 GMT
"We have been a beacon of light to bring people together and the national team stands for everybody." As England football manager Gareth Southgate suggests, his Euro 2020 team sparked a sense of national pride and unity that runs deeper than the temporary heartbreak caused by Sunday's failed penalty shootout. But the racist abuse that followed has been depressing - particularly those who had fallen in love with the team for the first time. "I never thought I'd be cheering on England, not ever. But here I am," Binta Williams tells Radio 1 Newsbeat. The 22-year-old student from Manchester normally wouldn't care about English football - but says she felt "so proud" of the Euros squad that she's become "somewhat patriotic". "The team come from so many backgrounds and a lot are people of colour, like Raheem Sterling. I'm Jamaican, he's Jamaican," she says. "Watching him smash it for England, the feeling's just like - wow." More than half of the 26 players in the Euro 2020 squad have at least one parent or grandparent born outside the UK, according to the Migration Museum. That includes Bukayo Saka, whose parents are Nigerian, Jadon Sancho, whose mum and dad are from Trinidad and Tobago - and Marcus Rashford, whose grandma lived on the Caribbean island of St Kitts. All three players received racist abuse on social media after not scoring their penalties in the shootout on Sunday. "It's just embarrassing as a country that fans behave in that way," Binta says.
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Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2021 2:36:49 GMT
Specials | Donnarumma PK saves It was Donnarumma who had sealed Italy’s triumph on Sunday, saving consecutive penalties from Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in the deciding shootout. Minutes later, he was named as Uefa’s player of the tournament. As questions were being asked in England about the wisdom of allowing a 19-year-old to take a penalty in a final, Italy was marvelling at the 22-year-old who denied him. Donnarumma did not even celebrate at first, walking away with the nonchalant swagger of a man who had been here and done this before. Tearful Gianluigi Donnarumma lays down marker as Italy’s heir to Buffon Gianluigi Donnarumma plunges to his left to keep out Jadon Sancho’s penalty in the shootout at Wembley and set Italy on course for Euro 2020 glory. Goalkeeper put the difficulty of his Milan exit behind him to deliver his career-best performances this summer Giorgio Chiellini took the cup to bed with him on Sunday night. Well, it would be more accurate to say Monday morning. Italy’s captain insisted he was only continuing a tradition established by Fabio Cannavaro after the Azzurri won the World Cup in 2006, but he had been reluctant to let the Henri Delaunay Cup out of his sight after Italy defeated England in the final of Euro 2020. When the time came to leave Wembley Stadium, Chiellini placed the trophy on a front seat of Italy’s team bus and cuddled up beside it. But then Gianluigi Donnarumma came aboard. “Giorgione! ” the Italy goalkeeper said. “Will you leave it with me for a couple of minutes?”
How could he say no? It was Donnarumma who had sealed Italy’s triumph on Sunday, saving consecutive penalties from Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka in the deciding shootout. Minutes later, he was named as Uefa’s player of the tournament.
As questions were being asked in England about the wisdom of allowing a 19-year-old to take a penalty in a final, Italy was marvelling at the 22-year-old who denied him. Donnarumma did not even celebrate at first, walking away with the nonchalant swagger of a man who had been here and done this before.
Perhaps that was because he had. Five nights earlier, in the same goal at Wembley, Donnarumma denied Álvaro Morata to put Italy on course for the final. These were the fourth and fifth penalty shootouts that he had taken part in so far in his senior career, and he has won every single one of them.
Not that keeping out spot-kicks is the sum of Donnarumma’s contribution. He made a string of spectacular saves throughout Euro 2020, from the double stop against Switzerland’s Steven Zuber in the group stage to a point-blank block from Spain’s Dani Olmo in the semi-final. The former Italy goalkeeper Walter Zenga defined his full-length dive to deny Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne as “a perfect display of technique”.
At the time, Donnarumma believed it was the most important save of his career. His efforts against Spain and England must at least have equalled it. And we have not yet talked about his distribution. It was Donnarumma who launched the attack that led to Italy’s goal against Spain, getting the ball quickly to Marco Verratti while their opponents were out of position.
Who could ever have imagined that Italy would find a worthy heir to Gianluigi Buffon this quickly? Donnarumma used to keep posters of his predecessor up on the walls of his bedroom as a kid growing up in Pompeii. They even share a first name, though the younger man goes by “Gigio” instead of “Gigi”.
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Post by Admin on Jul 15, 2021 20:00:36 GMT
It all ended in a familiar consoling embrace for Gareth Southgate. Wrapping his arms around Bukayo Saka, the England coach felt the teenager’s anguish.
Having a decisive penalty saved in a European Championship match at Wembley Stadium can be such a lonely experience.
It still follows Southgate 25 years after his missed spot kick in the semifinals against Germany. Now he had to accept responsibility for Sunday’s final loss to Italy, having selected Saka to take what would be the last kick of Euro 2020 — a kick saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
“He is not on his own,” Southgate said. “We’ve got to be there to support him. We’re got to be there to help him. But I’m sure he’ll get a lot of love from the outside.”
The focus will turn instead to Southgate’s decision-making. Should he have asked a 19-year-old to step up for such a pressure-packed moment?
Raheem Sterling, a Premier League winner playing at his fourth tournament, wasn’t even included among the five penalty takers before the shootout was over and Italy was going off to collect the trophy.
Southgate’s strategy will be analyzed for years to come in a nation still waiting for a first major title since the 1966 World Cup.
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho were brought in the 120th minute just in time to take penalties. Rashford had to play at right back with Kyle Walker sacrificed for the looming shootout. Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League winner, Jordan Henderson, was deemed less suitable for a penalty than Sancho.
It was a big ask of Rashford and Sancho after spending most of the night sitting on the bench. They both missed penalties before Sancho as England lost 3-2 in the shootout.
“It’s down to me,” Southgate said. “I decided on the penalty takers based on what we’ve done in training. Nobody is on their own. That’s my call and it totally rests on me.”
Alan Shearer, who scored England’s first penalty before Southgate’s miss at Euro ’96, doubted his former teammate’s strategy on Sunday night.
“Mentally you have to get yourself right,” Shearer said on the BBC. “You’ve not kicked a ball for a few hours.”
No one was faulting the players who missed but that didn’t stop the grimly familiar spate of racially abusive messages being sent to Sancho, Rashford and Saka on social media. All three are Black.
“They were the best takers we had left on the pitch,” Southgate said. “We win and lose together.”
It was a defeat that came after gaining the perfect platform to surge to glory when Luke Shaw scored in the second minute. It looked like Southgate’s tactics were paying off by reverting to a back three for the final, with Shaw deployed as a left wing back. He was set up for the goal by Kieran Trippier’s cross from the other flank.
But England also took the lead early in the 2018 World Cup semifinals against Croatia when Trippier was the scorer in the fifth minute.
Just like that 2-1 loss three years ago, England failed to build on a position of strength.
“At times we didn’t keep the ball well enough,” Southgate said. “That invited more pressure. It’s something we have to be better at.”
For a squad hyped up for its attacking threats, England became timid in the search for a second goal.
“To get all those attacking players on you have to do it late,” Southgate said. “It was a gamble but if we gambled earlier we may have lost the game in extra time any way.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 16, 2021 4:59:51 GMT
It came down to penalties to decide Euro 2020 but ultimately the team that looked best for most of the tournament came out victorious. Italy got off to a great start in the shootout with Domenico Berardi getting the Azzurri on the board. Jordan Pickford made the first save, but Gianluigi Donnarumma proved to be the true hero with three straight stops to give Italy the championship. England manager Gareth Southgate inserted Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho in the game late in the second half of extra time purely for penalty taking purposes, but both young stars were unable to beat Donnarumma. Bukayo Saka, another talented youngster in the England side, was the last one to go down. This is another heartbreaking loss for England given the stakes and the venue. It’ll be tough for Southgate to justify his late substitutions. Jorginho had the chance to repeat his heroics from the semifinal shootout against Spain, but Pickford denied him the glory before Saka’s miss.
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