2012 European Championships QF Part 2: England vs Italy

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Will England take revenge?

England: Hart; Johnson, Cahill, Jagielka, Baines; Gerrard, Henderson; Rooney, Sterling, Welbeck; Sturridge.

That just sums up Wayne Rooney.

Jack Wilshire, well he is just crap.

THE NEVILLE: The referee draws the imaginary line there   

I hates it, I hates it  

Rooney up top then.

Sturridges legs have gone

Candreva off (Motm) Parolo on
Sturridge off Lallana on

Seriously WTF unless injured

Everyone can go to bed now we aren't going to score with Rooney up top.

What did I say about glen bloody Johnson, how he makes a living as a footballer I'll never know.

Ha.

Italy struggling to get out without balotelli up front.

Not that it matters as England's only chance was on the break.

Brilliant game in fairness

What row does Rooney put this in

Great chance this.

That is absolutely awful, why on earth did gerrard take that - he has been absolutely crap for 85 minutes then he wastes one of te best chances in the game.

Rooney you absolute naughty naughty boy. All Barkley had to do was slip it to Sterling you greedy Kumquat.

Duty are you still delusional about england?

Truly terrible second half. Rooney horrifying. We`re in serious trouble now, facing a pumped up Uruguay.

That scoreline flatters England.

Absolutely battered.

Gerrard deserves special mention for how absolutely awful he was.

Hart: 6 - Precious little to do, faultless for either goal. Distributed well
Johnson: 6 - Not much defending to be done, got forward but struggled to make an impact.
Cahill: 7 - Good solid game
Jagielka: 6 - Unremarkable which for a CB is a good thing.
Baines: 4 - Midfield left him exposed, struggled to deal with Candreva.
Gerrard: 5 - Did his part in stifling the middle of the pitch but made little impact.
Henderson: 6 - Ran well, like Gerrard struggled to impact
Sterling: 8 - Englands best player on the counter, consistently went past Italian players. Faded badly in the last 20.
Rooney: 3 - Made the assist. Struggled to get into the game and was a hindrance when he did.
Welbeck: 5 - Picked to defend a side and Italian didn't bother with it. Failed to make advantage of space left on the flank.
Sturridge: 7 - Worked hard for 60 minutes, got his goal but faded.

Ent were you watched a rerun of 2012

Bright performance, on another night England could've won that. Italy got the 2nd and were able to set up shop. Without that space we really couldn't open them up.

It was a better performance than two years ago but 2nd half was terrible. Rooney was diabolical, Gerrard is a traffic cone, no legs.....nothing. Baines not up to this level but was not properly protected. Sterling was great, just need Oxlade on the other side.

Uruguay game is a knockout match. Seriously worrying.

This was a very even game until the 2nd and Italy showed their experience to close the game out. Pretty surprised by the negativity (actually its John and Ent so not really )

GSC wrote:Ent were you watched a rerun of 2012

Bright performance, on another night England could've won that. Italy got the 2nd and were able to set up shop. Without that space we really couldn't open them up.

Aye that was their plan.

They had 1 cleared off the line and hit the woodwork twice.

That's with just defending for half an hour.

Men against boys really.

On another day we could've easily won that, bright performance for a team in transition.

Ultimately Italy showed their class, there really wasn't much in it at all.

Yeah but on another day that ball I midfield doesn't fall to sterling, Italy take their chances and England get beat 4-0.

No real pluses from this, Italy kept sterling quiet second half.

Gerrard, Rooney, Johnson - big experienced players, all awful aside from one cross from Rooney.

Lets be honest here. Italy have laboured, yet still beat us.

Are we prepared to admit we are Poopie?

Sterling, Sturridge were positives, Welbeck did what he does well.

Negatives were the result, fact we cramped up everywhere, Rooney, Gerrard & Baines. Italy weren't great either.

Huge knockout game now basically vs Uruguay.

GSC wrote:Sterling: 8 - Englands best player on the counter, consistently went past Italian players. Faded badly in the last 20.

Sterling had a few good moments but thought he ran into defenders too much. Didn't think his end product was that great. Great pass for the goal.

There was plenty of people calling for Wilshere to replace Henderson on Twitter. When he did England seemed to go flat. Henderson seems to move the ball with short, quick passes. When Wilshere came on we seemed to look for longer cross field balls and the tempo suffered. Wilshere's contribution seemed to be kicking the ball out for an Italian throw in in the England half and run into defenders twice.

The damning things for me is that Italy had a good look at England and felt safe to shut up shop for the last 25 minutes.

Must win against Uruguay as Costa Rica will not be an easy game.

Gerrard needs dropped, was atrocious tonight.

I thought Italy looked at England, seen Ashley Cole wasn't playing and targeted Leighton Baines. I think that settles the Baines vs Cole debate.

Enjoyed the game. Disappointed at the final score - but can't complain about the way England played : just the finishing.
Everyone was saying beforehand they just wanted to see Roy have his boys attack , never mind the result ; and they have. So I am not complaining.
Ifs , buts and maybes : will Rooney ever have a better chance to score in a WC ? But Italy hit the bar , etc.. They earned their three points ; now England need to beat Uraguay . If they keep their heads and keep playing with that spirit , I reckon they will...

I would still like to see England go to a 4-3-3 with Gerrard, Henderson, Barkley as the midfield three.

I'd love it if Rooney played well and got a goal or 2, the fact is he never does never can at this level. He is very predictable!

Gerrard too is owned once more by Pirlo, these 2 should be on the bench next game. Glen Johnson LOL!

Italy lost a certain starter to a broken leg 2 weeks ago and their goalkeeper and captain today in training. That's Italy's first win since they qualified, they drew with Luxembourg and Ireland in their warm ups.

I think England are in serious difficulty getting out of the group.

One major talking point, I think Ashley cole is sti a better defender than Baines.

Gerrard shouldn't be playing, he is alright in the pl where 70% of te teams are incompetent but against too international sides he just gets passed around.

Then just look at pirlo to see what a real passing midfielder looks like. No 60 yard raking balls to a winger (who is still marked) bit lots or incisive passes creating good situations.

It's a pity England have no one else for midfield.

Ent wrote:Italy lost a certain starter to a broken leg 2 weeks ago and their goalkeeper and captain today in training. That's Italy's first win since they qualified, they drew with Luxembourg and Ireland in their warm ups.

I think England are in serious difficulty getting out of the group.

One major talking point, I think Ashley cole is sti a better defender than Baines.

Different types of LB's really. I just don't know why Glen is anywhere near the squad, its painful to watch him, shouldn't be in the premier league either.

Gerrard will always come up short against the best CM's.

GSC wrote:On another day we could've easily won that, bright performance for a team in transition.

Ultimately Italy showed their class, there really wasn't much in it at all.

I'd concur with this GSC. A lapse of concentration cost us ultimately (there first goal), second was a wonderful cross albeit poor from Baines

As I said on the other thread Gerrard's lack of legs hurt. He offered no CM protection to Baines when the winger dropped inside, and left us exposed. Changing Rooney/Welbeck wasn't the issue, should've swapped Henderson to Baines's side

But we were bright on the attack. Sterling magnificent although he tired, Sturridge bright, Welbeck started well and faded, Rooney great for the goal but Meh overall. Barkley and Lallana did alright when they came on

Josiah Maiestas wrote:

Ent wrote:Italy lost a certain starter to a broken leg 2 weeks ago and their goalkeeper and captain today in training. That's Italy's first win since they qualified, they drew with Luxembourg and Ireland in their warm ups.

I think England are in serious difficulty getting out of the group.

One major talking point, I think Ashley cole is sti a better defender than Baines.

Different types of LB's really. I just don't know why Glen is anywhere near the squad, its painful to watch him, shouldn't be in the premier league either.

Gerrard will always come up short against the best CM's.

I just love the fact Johnson is so deluded he thinks he can beat an international goalkeeper from 25 years on his weak foot he tried it not once bit twice!!

Let's face it the competent fullback is dying a death in modern times, it's just fit guys or failed wingers now.

Anybody else think we should've had a pen for the tackle on Gerrard second half? I thought it was a pretty clear one

No, looked desperational from our point. He was barged, but not a pen for me. Surprised Gerrard was even able to move himself into the box in the first place.

Olly wrote:Anybody else think we should've had a pen for the tackle on Gerrard second half? I thought it was a pretty clear one

You think ? I thought it was OK myself.

Wouldn't have mattered anyway , Rooney would have missed it   

This place and Wayne Rooney. It's embarrassing. I'll rave about Welbeck's importance to this team at some point too. We were much worse when he came off.

Heartening performance. Italy pounced on a weakness of ours very well. Boys looked confident and had England's highest ever pass completion rate of a World Cup game. Uruguay won't handle our attack.

Yeah there were definitely a lot more positives than negatives coming out of that match. Sterling totally justified his selection in the team, Welbeck played well, Cahill and Jagielka did well, Henderson had a good game in the middle of the park and probably deserves to be selected again. Could easily have been a decent result on another day, Italy shut the game down after they got their second goal and even then with better finishing and a bit more patience England could have had an equaliser.

Negatives are that Rooney was poor, I thought he would do well on the left where Italy were weak defensively and he would have a bit more time and space but he barely had an impact on the game bar his assist, missed a glorious chance as well. Gerrard struggled in this game, but I think everybody thought that was going to be the case anyway, still thought he distributed well, his cross-field balls stretched Italy and opened them up, that's what he's in the team to do so he should do it. Full backs were poor, Baines in particular looked out of his depth, Italy targeted him, at first I thought they were targeting the side Rooney was covering, but it was literally just targeting Baines, for all the criticism Johnson gets don't think he had that bad of a game, supported the attack a lot more than Baines and was never really caught out. Hart looked dodgy, lucky to have been saved by Jagielka after Balotelli's lob.

In an ideal world the only change I would make is The Ox for Rooney to create a much more fluid front four. Think Henderson deserves the start, played really well in the middle, nicking the ball often and passing it nicely. Wilshere's time on the pitch was uneventful and I thought his runs were not helpful.

I didn't think it was that bad a performance, England were creating a lot more chances than they have done for a while and there were times they actually played exciting football. A score of 5 for Welbeck is undeserved, he was very good up against one of the best defenders in the world in Chiellini.
We played the best team in the group and were narrowly beat, I'm more positive now than I was a week ago that England could qualify now based on Uruguay's result.

Got to love the ridiculous negativity of some English fans.... Genuinely think some of you expect to be in the final every time out.

Think Crimey and Hero have the right opinion of your performance, you weren't at your best but were beaten by the best team in your group.

It is one defeat, settle down lads. Enjoy the fact you get to a World Cup.

Eh Welbeck was picked to cover Johnson and Italy ignored that flank anyway. Given the space he got going forward he didn't do enough for me. Should've played him left or stuck on a proper winger

For me Welbeck justified his inclusion and was a solid 7, Sterling and Sturridge deserve an 8. Rooney was poor certainly but the cross gives him a 5, the same as Gerrard who I was most disappointed with, he knew all about Pirlo and as captain and in his role he should have been on him.

Too many times for me, he received the ball in space with room to run into and simply laid it off. At this level hes got to be confident enough to go and attack the space. Even if I don't like it, I do buy the defending, but that wasn't a factor last night.

The two inside forwards on the wing didnt really work for me, felt if we had someone out there with the pace and ability to run at defenders Sterling showed we could've made more of the space afforded.

Still, best England performance against a top nation in about a decade

England were very good last night, really enjoyed the game despite the result. Henderson, Welbeck both did well. The issue is that we went for wingers who aren't naturally widemen. If you're going to do that, you need a three man midfield. Sure it's exciting to watch but it's too aggressive for me.

The back five will obviously remain the same, I'd like to see Oxlade in place of Sturridge with Rooney moving upfront, this deeper role doesn't suit him and he's wasted. Have Sterling and Welbeck either side of Rooney in attack with Oxlade in a box to box role in front of Gerrard/Henderson.

GSC wrote:Too many times for me, he received the ball in space with room to run into and simply laid it off. At this level hes got to be confident enough to go and attack the space. Even if I don't like it, I do buy the defending, but that wasn't a factor last night.

The two inside forwards on the wing didnt really work for me, felt if we had someone out there with the pace and ability to run at defenders Sterling showed we could've made more of the space afforded.

Still, best England performance against a top nation in about a decade

Yes, quite agree.

Where's Owen? He might of cheered up by now!

I don't think Gerrard did as badly as people are saying, obviously defensively he don't have the legs, but his passing was good and he got us going quickly with his long passes like he does at Liverpool quite often.

I thought Welbeck was wonderful. His pressure on the Italians was top notch and he played like a modern footballer. If he is going to press like that then Van Gaal will use him at United. He also ran at their backline a few times and caused problems. Genuinely think we lost our edge when he went off.

Otherwise, it was a very encouraging performance. Even Rooney, who is getting slated, probably displayed our moment of the most quality. That ball to Sturridge was perfection.

Disappointments were Gerrard, moments from Hart and Baines (or at least the lack of cover for Baines). I won't be too harsh on Gerrard as he was up against one hell of a midfield. People on Twitter bemoaning he can't outplay Pirlo...not exactly a criticism is it? His passing range was good, but he and Henderson could not impose themselves against a world class midfield.

However, I would have either moved Henderson over to focus on the left side or put Welbeck there and Rooney on the right. Makes me even less surprised that Rooney didnt have a huge impact considering he was played in a role he doesnt massively excel in against a team that could drag him about with their use of full backs.

Its also a shame Sturridge picked up a knock as both Rooney and Sterling, the latter especially, looked shattered near the end and needed hooking.

BUT: I think Italy are a very good team and we showed we were not overawed. I think if we play like that and we beat Uruguay and Costa Rica. Its a decent sized if with England, but we've spent months desperate for the side to play with pace and attacking intent whether its a risk or not. We did that and can be very happy.