Euro U21 Final- Spain vs. Italy

Look for Spain to be models of the pure as driven snow sportmanship for which they are so renown. It's like good vs evil.

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j1897

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You´re on a soccer board, rackensack bhoy.

You understood the last four items of my sentence to be my attempt at defining catenaccio, didn´t you? Do they teach readin´ and writin´ in Arky?

Go back to the outdoor board (you and your ´googlin´ fangers obviously landed on this board by mistake).

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Before using big words like catenaccio, google it first and learn the meaning. It only makes you look stupid.

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you
gone
get
raped

Seriously, I totally expect the Azzurrini to play classic counter attack against Spain, probably mixing periods of pressing Spain high up the pitch with some spells of sitting back and absorbing pressure.

Roster wise this isn't a very normal Italian side in that the clear strength is high quality depth in the attack (even with El Shaarawy and Balotelli having moved on to the NT).

Insigne, Gabbiadini, Immobile, Destro, Borini, Florenzi, Sansone are all elite prospects in attack who already have much more Serie A experience than most Italian U-21 sides have had in the past.


It's the defensive back line (and defensive midfield since Marrone is out with an injury suffered in group play) that's not as strong as usual and very inexperienced.

Without Marrone playing off Verratti (like De Rossi / Pirlo for the NT), the midfield had a lot of trouble against Holland. This caused them to drop deeper and counter more in the 2nd half. They hadn't really done this at all in qualifying but it proved quite effective as almost every good chance (not on a non-set piece) fell to Italy on the counter.

Spain has a lot more technical quality though where Holland just tried to overrun the midfield with brute force but I still expect a similar style from Italy as they played the 2nd half against Holland.

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Roster wise this isn't a very normal Italian side in that the clear strength is high quality depth in the attack (even with El Sharawaay and Balotelli having moved on to the NT).

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This is what surprised, and disgusted me, yesterday. I think they revert to the old style of play, when in panic mode.

Since they lost the last U21 final to Spain (it was La Baby Italia they beat, wasn´t it?), I expect them to not come out playing what has been sold as Italy´s new MO. Especially after yesterday.

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calcio,

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is football. Crawl back under your rock.

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This is what surprised, and disgusted me, yesterday. I think they revert to the old style of play, when in panic mode.

Since they lost the last U21 final to Spain (it was La Baby Italia they beat, wasn´t it?), I expect them to not come out playing what has been sold as Italy´s new MO. Especially after yesterday.

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I agree that the Azzurrini were very, very poor in playing the ball to Verratti and out of the back. Still, I wouldn't call it "disgusting" when Italy still created most of the best scoring chances even if they conceded the Dutch a lot of possession.

A big problem was that the only solid defensive midfielder on the squad Marrone is out with an injury. He's the only "beefy" guy and the one who can do, to some degree, what De Rossi does beside Pirlo.

Mangia choose Rossi to replace him and he's a smallish attacking midfielder who just got overrun by the much, much, much more physical Dutch midfield.

The Dutch had a great plan to turn the midfield into a wrestling match and, with the referee waving off most fouls, they executed it well.

Neither Verratti nor Rossi were tough enough physically fighting off their markers to pick up possession.

In fairness though, Verratti was continually fouled to a degree that would never be allowed were he Pirlo or Xavi (or even Verratti playing in Ligue 1).

There were MANY instances early on where a Pirlo or Xavi would just continue to draw foul after foul whereas Verratti was simply mauled time after time with no call when he'd cleverly drawn the contact.

There's also little doubt that a Pirlo or Xavi would better find a way to deal with that type tactic/officiating and it shows Verratti's inexperience that it was so effective against him.

I also give the Dutch full credit as it was effective counter to Italy's superior technical/playmaking quality.

However, it's why I kind of reacted strongly to posters seemingly blaming the dynamic of the match squarely on Italy. Pirlo/Xavi would have been going down, rolling around and rearranging their socks for an eternity had they kept receiving those hard fouls; much more than the Italian kids did yesterday.

Spain will be a different story completely as they have no need of strong arm tactics. However, Spain may be good enough to drive the Azzurrini back into their final third just out of sheer quality.

I wish these teams would stop meeting in finals, I don't particularly like either one of them.

¡VAMOS ESPAÑA!