Euro 2020 final preview: England play Italy
“It’s coming home”; these words have been echoing all tournament long as the high hopes kept rising along with the expectations of England going all the way. The words are taken from the song “Three Lions” by comedy duo David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and a band called the Lightning Seeds. The song was released just before to the 1996 European Championships hosted by England. The words have become the de facto anthem of the England football team in major tournaments especially those hosted by England. The words speak to the 2020 European Championships (EURO 2020) trophy heading to the host nation.
They’re not there yet, and they still have a “Sea of Blue” in the form of Italy to cross if they are to be crowned champions and land their first major world title since the 1966 World Cup triumph. Scenes of England’s 1996 European Championship semi-final vs Germany starting to appear in the minds of England’s more senior supporters when the scores were locked at 1-1 at the end of the 90 minutes. In the match against the Germans, it was the English who scored first after Alan Shearer put them ahead. Stefan Kuntz scored midway the first half as the score remained 1-1 until the final whistle. As history would have it, Gareth Southgate (the current England manager) was the only player to miss a penalty on the night, to hand the Germans victory. Germany went on to beat Czech Republic in the final to be crowned tournament winners.
England were, however, spared any blushes and avoided the dreaded penalty shootout thanks, ironically, to a Harry Kane penalty in the 104th minute to send the English 2-0 up and send the approximately 65,000 strong England supporters gathered in the Wembley Stadium into wild celebrations. Earlier in the game Mikkel Damsgaard’s 30th minute strike was cancelled out by a Simon Kjaer own goal in the 39th minute. Damsgaard’s goal is the first to be conceded by England in this tournament.
Since the 1966 World Cup Finals, England have been involved in 19 major tournaments and this is the first final. They began the tournament by beating Croatia 1-0 in their first group match, they followed that up with a 0-0 draw with Scotland and closed out the group with another 1-0 win, this time against the Czech Republic. England topped the group and played against Germany in the round of 16. Thanks to two late goals by Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane in the second half, the English booked their ticket to play Ukraine in the Quarter-final. England managed to ease pass Ukraine, who were making it to the quarter final of a major tournament for the first time in the nation’s history, the match ended 4-0.
Italy’s route to the final was filled with drama and intrigue, they began the group stage with 3-0 victories against Turkey followed by Switzerland. They completed the group stage with a hard fought 1-0 victory over Wales. They went on to beat Austria 2-1 in the round of 16 and the scoreline was similar in their quarter final win over pre-tournament favourites and world number 1 ranked Belgium. They were rewarded with a semi-final showdown with another tournament favourite, Spain. After regulation and extra time both teams were still locked at 1-1. It was there that Italy won (4)-(2).
Today’s final promises to be a spectacle with the only undefeated teams left in the competition going head to head at Wembley; the home of English football. The match will kick off at 2:00 pm (local time).
