England would have put up a better fight than Italy

Chris, Portugal came the closest to bearing Spain by pressuring them high up the pitch and being aggressive, the fact is, for 4 years teams have been trying to block Spain out of the game and they always get through in the end, playing like that for 120 minutes, you just can't keep that up.

Gatsby wrote:Chris, Portugal came the closest to bearing Spain by pressuring them high up the pitch and being aggressive, the fact is, for 4 years teams have been trying to block Spain out of the game and they always get through in the end, playing like that for 120 minutes, you just can't keep that up.

Portugal played nowhere near as open as Italy. They were absolute shit and that was the worst performance v spain in the tornament bar Ireland.

Italy had to play for 30 minutes with 10 men, what do you expect?

And Italy were threatening in the 2nd half when they had 11 men and might've got a goal too.

Naive play according to Chris.

Chris wrote:

Gatsby wrote:

You mean that game were Barceleona got in behind our defence 4or 5 times and should have scored?

No doubt they should have scored, Messi should have scored a penalty at the nou camp aswell. The fact is you do your best and ride your luck in these games. But to think attacking spain and leaving your defence exposed and losing 4-0 is putting up a better fight than trying to completely block them out the game and take any chance you can is ridiculous. They got ripped wide open and played like clowns.

Tbh, I think you're still mad Italy bullied us. Putting 10 men behind the ball as someone said is just accepting defeat, England would have done worse, Terry would look like a league 1 defender as usual and Parker would be on his knees come 30 mins. Point is, Italy tried to play football and got beat fair and square, England would have parked, take the keys out and still get raped.

Ben thinks Italy put up a fight by going trying to go at spain.. that was not putting up a fight, that was doing exactly what spain would want any team to do, getting owned and leaving the defence exposed. Putting up a fight would be keeping things tight and not getting ripped open twice in the first half to go 2-0 down. Italy bent over for spain and I don't think England would have gave spain the space they enjoyed against the italians considering we packed our third in every game playing on the counter attack.

Of course it was naive for Italy to try and take spain on, they got fucked 4-0 for their pleasure. Saying i'm mad about Italy "bullying us".. yeh they bullied us to a 0-0 draw in a game where we should have had a clear penalty, what an achievement. I'm glad they lost in the final so embarrassingly.

Italy dominated you for 80 minutes, if Balotelli had his shooting boots on then it would not have been 0-0. How can you argue that?

Gatsby wrote: Italy dominated you for 80 minutes, if Balotelli had his shooting boots on then it would not have been 0-0. How can you argue that?

He didn't though did he? They got a 0-0 draw with England over 2 hours and we should have been awarded an obvious penalty in normal time.

This is besides the point of Italy going into the game V Spain exactly how they wanted them too which lead to them getting the worst defeat in a european cup final ever.

My view that England would have put up more of a fight is the subject of this thread though, I think its absolutely ridiculous that people would think such a defensive minded team could not have done better than a 4-0 stuffing. It's just that everybody likes to hate england so it's cool to say "oh we'd have got fucked 5-0 or worse". This Spain team looked average for their ability and were being slated until the final, reason? They struggled to get going against the other top sides but when it came to italy they smashed them to fucking pieces easily.

Ben was saying to me England would have lost by 1 or 2 but created less chances meaning less fight.

Firstly losing by 1 or 2 is far better than getting smashed 4-0. Secondly strong crystal ball skills.

You're the one saying England would have put up a better fight, you can't exactly criticise someone for making a prediction

They couldn't have put up much less of a fight.

I can't believe this thread hasn't been locked yet

No injuries + not down to 10, Italy drew with Spain 1-1 3 weeks ago and had a good chance of winning too, why can't you see that those two things were important in Spain's last 2 goals? Sure they were no where near as good as they were in that 1 all draw but the two things mentioned clearly made an impact on the scoreline, why is it so hard to understand

Chris wrote:Ben thinks Italy put up a fight by going trying to go at spain.. that was not putting up a fight, that was doing exactly what spain would want any team to do, getting owned and leaving the defence exposed. Putting up a fight would be keeping things tight and not getting ripped open twice in the first half to go 2-0 down. Italy bent over for spain and I don't think England would have gave spain the space they enjoyed against the italians considering we packed our third in every game playing on the counter attack.

Of course it was naive for Italy to try and take spain on, they got fucked 4-0 for their pleasure. Saying i'm mad about Italy "bullying us".. yeh they bullied us to a 0-0 draw in a game where we should have had a clear penalty, what an achievement. I'm glad they lost in the final so embarrassingly.

Let it all out son.


But honestly, you're saying England would have kept it nice and tight at the back, but the chances of them scoring would have been 0. Counter attack? Rooney, Welbeck andn Young only with the pace and I'm sure they would be behind the ball anyway and Spain won't commit as much. At least now we know you encourage such weak tactics in a final that wouldn't have even worked. England wouldn't have put up a better fight, Joe Hart could only keep out so much.

Italy had a go against Spain in the opening match and played really well. They eased passed Germany and of course England, you do know that in the 2nd half before Motta got injured Italy had 2 glorious chances to peg Spain back. They had a go and lost fair and square. Rather lose trying to win, than lose trying to get to penalties (Which England are even shit at as well).

Kuled wrote:No injuries + not down to 10, Italy drew with Spain 1-1 3 weeks ago and had a good chance of winning too, why can't you see that those two things were important in Spain's last 2 goals? Sure they were no where near as good as they were in that 1 all draw but the two things mentioned clearly made an impact on the scoreline, why is it so hard to understand

Don't worry John 'I'll throw my body on the line' Terry and Super Scott Parker would have kept the scoreline below 3.

This thread turned out quite successful well done Chris , might have to make another one like Pirlo is a pedestrian.

Not surprised this is 4 pages, tbh.

Kuled wrote:No injuries + not down to 10, Italy drew with Spain 1-1 3 weeks ago and had a good chance of winning too, why can't you see that those two things were important in Spain's last 2 goals? Sure they were no where near as good as they were in that 1 all draw but the two things mentioned clearly made an impact on the scoreline, why is it so hard to understand

Italy got anally raped when it mattered, those two things wouldn't have made a single difference... maybe by a goal at best.

dena wrote:

Off topic, but that guy is brilliant.

Theo Filippo wrote:This thread turned out quite successful well done Chris , might have to make another one like Pirlo is a pedestrian.

People have agreed with me in this thread and to no team in the tornament apart from Ireland put up less of a fight than Italy so it's quite clear i'm correct and you're wrong as usual.

People just like to hate on England. We would have been twice the team defensively against Spain and it doesn't matter that Italy made some "ok" chances because if we even scored off a lucky deflection or set piece thats better than they done.

Chris I highly suggest you read the book "Why England lose" it pretty much is designed for people with views like you

Gatsby wrote:Chris I highly suggest you read the book "Why England lose" it pretty much is designed for people with views like you

So Sean you believe England would have done worse than a 4-0 embarrassment? Highly unlikely.

No, but i think its unfair to criticise Italy giving the unlucky circumstances. Also I don't think their prospective gameplan represents any kind of 'fight'.

Gatsby wrote:No, but i think its unfair to criticise Italy giving the unlucky circumstances. Also I don't think their prospective gameplan represents any kind of 'fight'.

So after all these replies you agree with me.

I agree that they mightn't have done worse than a 4-0 loss, but not that they would put up more 'fight'

Gatsby wrote:I agree that they mightn't have done worse than a 4-0 loss, but not that they would put up more 'fight'

Of course they would especially defensively. You couldn't put up less fight than they did.

Spain would have had to work so much harder to find the space.

I'm not sure if standing in the opponents half, passing the ball around and waiting for Defenders to make a mistake would classify as "working to find space".