Italy and England are the two teams who have made it out of the 24 nations competing for the championship of Europe. Euro 2020 has been an amazing tournament with boat-loads of goals, and drama. Now it all comes down to Italy and England; the two giant nations of UEFA will duke it out for glory. However, one question still remains, who should you root for in the Euro 2020 Final?
Euro 2020 Final: who should you root for?
In the spirit of the final, and because we happen to have two writers who root for both Italy and England, we at Philly Sports Network thought it would be fun to have them give their cases as to why their team will win the Euro 2020 final.
Zach LoBasso is pulling for Italy, while Steve thinks football is coming home to England! The boys make their cases for you to consider ahead of the Euro 2020 Final.
Italy, by Zach LoBasso
So, the Euro 2020 final is tomorrow and I am extremely nervous and excited. My Italy, the soccer superpower that they are, takes on Steve’s England who haven’t even been to a final since 1966. Italy didn’t drop a point in the group stage, they are currently one goal away from breaking the record for goals in a single major tournament, and are 33 games unbeaten. The run they are going on is fantastic and they are playing beautiful soccer while winning games.
They now face an England team who have only conceded one goal all tournament (Italy the same) and who have a Harry Kane who has gotten his shooting boots back which is always a dangerous thing. Italy’s stout backline will look to stifle England’s attack and Italy’s potent front three will be hungry for more than the one goal they were able to snag against Spain.
Now you might think, “I’ll root for England because they are the underdogs and they should win a final after all these years.” No. This is not what you should think if you are neutral. Think of all the incredible things the Italians have given us here in the United States. Great food, fast cars, and designer clothes are just the tip of the iceberg. Now enough of the silly reason why and why not you should root for Italy over England. Let’s dive into what we’ve seen throughout the tournament that could entice you to cheer on the Azzuri.
The most important thing to know is Italy is the team that will play the more attractive soccer on the day. While Italy is fast pace and exciting (a little less so without Spinazzola), England will be slow and methodical looking for a set piece or a moment of brilliance from the likes of Sterling, Grealish, or one of their other dribblers to create something. Italy’s whole team looks to create. They move the ball quickly and attack from all angles creating problems for opposing defenses.
At the end of the day, if you’re a fan of one team or another you are going to root for them and I respect that. However, if you are neutral and are looking for a team to support the clear choice is Italy. They are the more exciting team, they have history to break, and if we’re being honest, they have given us some pretty great food.
Enjoy the Euro 2020 final at 3:00 pm EST on Sunday, July 11th, and always remember, FORZA AZZURRI!!!!!!
England, by Steve Beavon
Well, I never thought I’d be writing this but tomorrow evening England is in the European Championship final, their first final since that famous World Cup win in 1966. It’s been a strange tournament for England and I’m not sure how to really summarise it. We headed into the tournament with some of the best attacking options in the continent, players like Phil Foden, Harry Kane, Jack Grealish, Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho, and a bunch of others were all at the disposal of Gareth Southgate and we were all hoping we’d go out there and play exciting, attacking football.
However, Southgate had other ideas and for the most part, we haven’t played that impressively, it’s always been a solid 7 or 8 out of ten performance, a professional, calm performance rather than a hectic, fast-paced performance. None of us can really complain about the performances because they’ve got us to the final and so, Southgate has been proven right. We’ve been through the whole Harry Kane not scoring saga and that’s been killed off since the knockout stages started. We’ve also seen Raheem Sterling come into his own, in the tournament, off the back of a pretty average season with Manchester City. I was one of the people that was calling for Sterling to be dropped pre-tournament and I’m glad he’s proven me, and many others, wrong.
The lowest point of the tournament for England was the 0-0 draw with Scotland and I mean, I say low but we are talking about England, they usually do some charitable act in every tournament they play in for the smaller, irrelevant nations. We’ve gone through the tournament only conceding one goal, in the semi-final against Denmark. We finally beat the haunting of our past and knocked the Germans out. We cruised past Ukraine, all while not playing at our best, but you can say that about a lot of the teams in the tournament.
Did we get the luck of the draw? Yes, you can say that. Did we have an ‘unfair’ advantage of having 6 of our 7 games at home? Yes, but one nation always does at a major tournament. Was the penalty against the Danish a lucky penalty? Of course, it was, there’s no denying it. There’s actually no denying any of those points that bitter fans have put against the run England has been on, but I can tell you a couple of things. One, we really couldn’t care less, and second, it was about time we had some luck go our way. We’ve had to put up with that Lampard moment against Germany, and the most obvious one was the whole Hand of God moment with Maradona. When was the last time, besides the penalty against Denmark, where you can 100% say England got lucky or street smart or even ‘cheated’, however way you want to word it.
The whole point of this piece was to try and convince you to support England, and root for them in the final but I’m not going to kid myself. Unless you’re English and reading this, you’ll be rooting for Italy to beat us, it’s just how it goes with the whole of Europe hating us English, it’s honestly quite funny, especially putting our opponent’s flags in your back gardens and Twitter names.
No one wants the English to win this game and we all couldn’t care less, it actually fuels our want to win this trophy, because we know how much it’ll annoy you to see us celebrate.
However, there’s one reason you should root for us to win and I’ll explain that reason now. After the semi-final win, London went into absolute madness. You had people throwing themselves through tables, climbing lampposts, bus shelters and even getting on the roofs of moving, double-decker buses. Now imagine we win the entire thing, the first trophy we’ve won since 1966, the entire country will burn to the ground with the celebrations and everyone will get their wish, England would implode and destroy themselves, that’s why you should want England to win this game.
I’ll finish off with three simple words: IT’S COMING HOME
Don’t miss who will become champions of Europe
Do you know who you’re rooting for now? Okay, make sure you either thank and/or blame Zach/Steve after they have led you to a state of euphoria/depression!
Make sure you catch all the action of what is set to be a truly fun and thrilling final. Italy and England go head to head Sunday, July 11 at 3:00 pm EST. You can catch the action on ESPN!
We’ll have a full breakdown of the final here on Philly Sports Network after the match so remember to come back when all is said and done! Who will be crowned the champions of Europe? Will Italy continue its dominance, or will England’s rise shock Europe?
Be sure to come back to Philly Sports Network for more Philadelphia Union and other soccer content!
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Mandatory Credit: ImagePhoto/Imago/Icon Sportswire, Moritz Muller/Imago/Icon Sportswire, and UEFA.com
