England 1 Italy 3.
This was beyond disappointing, more dismal than hopeless.
A performance that felt like the end of the line.
IT FELT TERMINAL.
In the first 10 minutes, Harry Kane dropped into midfield, got a short pass out of defence, managed to play in Danny Ings one-on-one.
But the striker hit the side-netting. His shot, with his weaker left foot, was a yard wide.
I thought: that kind of finishing got Burnley relegated.
That early “move” was as good as it got.
What I saw when England beat Sweden with late goal by Jesse Lingard, and last night, was a reality check, a confirmation that Englishmen can’t play football.
In 20014 in Brazil, we didn’t win a game. In a World Cup, that was a first.
In the Czech Republic this month, England Under 21s finished bottom of their group.
A sobering experience for some of our leading hacks, like Henry Winter and Sam Wallace, who were dutifully covering the tournament to monitor our emerging talent.
Gareth Southgate was an honest journeyman as a player and he’s now coaching journeymen.
His central midfielders Chalobah (Chelsea) and Forster-Caskey (Brighton), were frozen, paralysed, not in the game at all.
England needed a manager with the bottle to start Ruben Loftus-Cheek and tell him, “Demand the ball!” Failing that, bring him on at half-time.
Sam Wallace is fairly tactful in The Independent:
Let’s not avoid the painful truth, England have been losing games like these for years – coming up short, failing to produce, blowing their chances at senior and junior level. An England Under-21s’ side have not beaten their Italian counterparts since 1997. The seniors have not beaten Italy in a competitive game since 1977. This is not just a trend. Unfortunately for the English Football Association, it is a way of life.
They were not quite outplayed but they were made to look very ordinary when it mattered. Southgate’s contract extends for the cycle of the next 2017 qualification and tournament campaign and he wants to continue.
There will be the inevitable debate about whether the likes of Jack Wilshere and Raheem Sterling, among five senior internationals eligible, should have played. They are senior regulars already. It goes to show the difference between the two nations’ stock of players that not one of Italy’s squad have a senior cap.
The Italians under manager Luigi Di Biagio are also out, a consequence of Sweden’s late equaliser against Portugal that sees both those teams through. A big difference on this night was that Di Biagio’s players are regulars in Serie A teams. Six of Southgate’s side played all or some of last season in the Championship.