Deserved win for Italy in what was somewhat a tale of two halves. They had a very good first half. The big difference for me was the work rate that half as Italy just worked harder. Tactically they did a great job of making Spain struggle to get the ball out of their own half. Rather than press the Spanish CBs they let them have the ball and cut out the Spanish midfielders and backs leaving few options bar hoofing it forward. Of course Spanish players played into all of that by not moving to the ball when they needed to and also not making any runs.
Once again del Bosque sticks to "the plan" which clearly wasn't working before the match. Again the right side of Spain was lacking as Silva continually played anywhere but out on the right and Juanfran can't do the job alone much less with a wide player. If you really need to play Silva so bad and he's not going to provide any width then just replace Fabregas with him. Then later on when del Bosque brought on Vazquez and Pedro you actually had players getting forward. Anyway, just shocked that he didn't sub on Bruno.
It'll be interesting to see what Conte does with Chelsea. He seems to have some players who won't fit in so well tactically if he employs this formation.
Pelle winning the majority of the balls in the air is huge, he killed all momentum in the Sweden game everytime he touched it.
It was and it was not even in the box. He held up play really well on a couple of plays too.
Deserved lead for Italy. Spain look really clueless this half. Italy far better in pressing. Spain again really suboptimal at defending on the wings. Pelle's man orientation on Busquets has been very successful in dampening Spain's buildup; Spain must adapt. Nice performance from de Gea though.
Glad to see someone else noticed this. Other players need to drop back and help out by nobody was.
Can someone please explain to me why teams want to pay so much for Morata? I never see anything too positive watching him play and he just came off a season where he scored 12 goals in 47 games. After scoring 15 goals in 46 games last year.
Seems like a really average striker. And even calling him average seems a little generous.
I certainly can't. Someone will probably pay over the odds for him and Madrid will put that towards somebody like Pogba.
Excellent reffing so far BTW.
I know you somewhat recanted on this, but the ref was awful. He was particularly awful in the second half. He didn't favor either team as his decisions affected both equally. I think he let too much go and we were lucky not to see an injury. Well we actually did though I'm not sure it's down to the play the ref missed. Anyway, just awful work from the ref.
I wasn't implying that, and I didn't see the game yesterday. That said for the last decade Spain in particular (and it has bled into La Liga) has been very, very quick to go to ground and embellish. Not that there aren't offenders in all leagues, but they've been particularly bad in recent memory. Worse than I think the Italians ever were.
Hilarious commentary in general but especially during this match.
Biscuits, Iniesta and Alba surrounding the ref
Must be a coincidence
Or must be that Vazquez got purposely hit in the face by Motta. Vazquez kicked out at Motta and missed during that exchange, but Motta clearly hit him in the face. Funny your boy Ramos was nowhere to be seen. Not as funny as you failing to mention him *****ing at the ref.
Be interesting to see how Guardiola does trying to win this tournament again next time.
He is. Juanfran can make beautiful crosses but Carvajal is a better offensive RB and the best of the post Alves/Lahm generation.
Dani Darvajal, starting RB in HF Boards' Overrated XI.
Pedro manages to be in the Spain defence for that second goal. Where on earth was Pique?
Up the pitch trying to score. Did you watch the match? You do understand that it was the 91st minute and Spain needed to score a goal to stay alive right? You did see Pique with one of the best efforts for Spain in this match right? You do know that he scored for Spain already in this tournament right? Do you know that he has nine goals as a CB in the last two seasons? While he had time to get back on that play it's obvious where on earth he was and had he gone back he'd then have to have had to march up the pitch again.
Is this the end for Del Bosque? Kind of unfair from my uneducated casual fan POV, but soccer isn't a very forgiving sport
He's not a very good manager and it should definitely be the end of him. The fact that he continued after the last WC was bad enough.
cause I don't watch much soccer anymore..
it's kind of surreal for me watching a few of these Euro games and hearing for the first time so many new names lol (Portugal the other day vs Croatia was a stunning example)
I get that. As with everything it can get boring at times. You should post more though if you do.
