Euro 2020 decider brings England and Italy’s contrasting styles to the fore
Both nations found themselves at historic low points with fans despairing at their decline and then discovered men who could bring change and quickly lead them to success.
Southgate was able to draw on an exciting young generation of talent emerging from the Under-21 team and from the academies of Premiership clubs but his most significant decision was to change the culture around the England team.He was able to make an England call-up something players looked forward to rather than, as was too often the case in the past, a chore to be feared or avoided.
“If I think about the last Euros, when we got knocked out by Iceland, that still haunts me. I’d say that’s the lowest moment of my career by far,” said right-back Kyle Walker. “But we’re a lot more mature now. A lot of us have played in more big games, we’ve won more and we can manage games better.”Roberto Mancini had a different history to confront after Italy’s dismal qualifying campaign for Russia under Gian Piero Ventura ended with the humiliation of a play-off loss to Sweden.
At the beginning, when he told us to have in our minds the idea of winning the Euros, we thought he was crazyThere has been a greater emphasis on aggressive pressing and the result has been one of the most enjoyable Italian teams to watch in years. Mancini’s revolution did not undermine the fundamentals and he was wise to keep the experienced Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci at the back, who maintain Italy’s traditional defensive strength.
“Instead, during these years he has created a team which is now on the brink of doing that. And as he has repeated to us after every match, ‘one centimetre at a time, and now there is only the last centimetre left’.”
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