Home Or Rome? Wherever It Goes, We Have A Classic

It took a very controversial penalty for the Three Lions to finally roar. While they never appeared toothless, they faced an opposition who limited their bite. And they now have gotten closer to home after a pain-filled journey of successive perennial failure.

For fifty-five years, England never made it to the final of any competition and the ghosts of their past failures must have taken up green and white colors of the pitch as they stretched and hustled to get a winner. It would take some piece of sheer luck, and a divisive comedy of human and machine error for England to finally heave a sigh; perhaps not of total relief yet.

On Sunday, they face an Italian team, managed by arguably the finest manager on parade in the competition and one who has rejiggered the Azzurri to becoming an almost unbreakable unit. Aware that his team was coming from their lowest ebb in decades, Roberto Mancini has brought back delight and confidence to the Italian side and they are a foe to fear even on their worst days.

Against Spain, they proved they could do it all - huff, puff and still snuff out life from a better-performing opposition. What they’ve managed to show all through this tournament is a mixture of brawn and brain, beauty and beastly brilliance when it’s of utmost necessity and that makes this final an affair to savour.

On Sunday, Italy would make their second final appearance in three Euros and will be happy and confident they’re a much-changed side from nine years ago, and one that’s had a bumpy ride to renaissance.

At the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, they were embarrassed and eliminated in the group stage and missed out of the 2018 World Cup (for the first time since 1958). After their 2018 debacle, Mancini has reinstated control and character to a team lacking everything except its strength of old, before the appointment of the former Man City manager.

England on their part have wobbled and stumbled, slumped and slept through easy games and have been the butt of rival and neutral football fans’ jokes for many years. On many occasions, they have attracted the fury of their own supporters and may not have escaped another if Harry Kane didn’t score from Kasper Schmeichel’s painful spill of his spot kick. More than ever, they have a manager who has taken time to understand his team’s strengths and has capitalized on local support to the best of his knowledge.

Gareth Southgate has stuck to his preferred system; probably boring and too conservative to many, but his approach has worked in two major tournaments. The former Boro manager may not possess the experience that led Sven Goran Eriksson or Fabio Capello to the Three Lions bench, but he’s also proven he hasn’t adopted the naivety that filled the reign of Steve McClaren. Through giving young players like Bukayo Saka a chance to thrive in a team of more senior and probably better-rated players, he has also shown he’s not controlled by a media that will extol him as long as he’s triumphant.

Denmark fought like the Vikings they are till the end and have grown to become one of the best stories of this Euros, with their first day heartbreak still in mind, but against Italy, England face a team seeking to revive sad relics, like them.

Both teams match in every area - on the pitch and on paper and the margin of their closeness is nearer than the 1,840km between London and Rome.

The world of football will be served a contest of colour in Wembley and wherever it heads to (home or Rome), we sure will enjoy a scintillating game of football - a classic of historic proportions. And one between two teams of equal hunger, strength and character.

https://rilwan.substack.com/p/home-or-rome-wherever-it-goes-we?r=d61jm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter