Euro 2012 - England (3)0-0(4) Italy - Review

After 2 hours of Football and still no result, it was penalties that again decided the fate of an English team at a major tournament. Ashley Young and his namesake Cole both missing penalties compared to Italy's only miss from Ricardo Montolivo proved to be the deciding factor in a game dominated by the Italians.

Player Ratings -

England - Hart (6), Johnson (7), Terry (6), Lescott(6), A.Cole(5), Milner (5), Parker (4), Gerrard (6), Young (3), Rooney (6), Welbeck (7) Subs - Carroll (5), Walcott(6), Henderson (5)

Italy - Buffon (7), Abate (7), Bonucci (6), Barzagli (6), Balzaretti (6), De Rossi (7), Pirlo (9), Montolivo (6), Marchisio (7), Cassano (6), Balotelli (7) Subs - Diamanti (7), Nocerino (6), Maggio (6)

Man of the Match - Andrea Pirlo

The game began promisingly for England and although Daniele De Rossi hit the post with a fantastic effort early on, England created chances in the opening 20 minutes, most notably through a good run from Glen Johnson and a lofted shot that required a good save from Buffon in the Italian goal. However, it quickly became an exercise in passing from the Italian midfield with Pirlo and Marchisio increasingly impising themselves on the English midfield.
The latter stages of the first half were dominated by Italy, with Mario Balotelli repeatedly beating the offside flag to get clear of the England defence, only to not convert the chances. Therefore, going in at half time, the scoreline stood at 0-0 with the Italians beginning to find themselves increasingly on top.
The second half began much in the manner that the first ended, Italy dominating posession through their impressive midfield and continually creating chances through Balotelli, Cassano and Montolivo. The half carried on in this manner, with Italy showing their dominance is the passing statistics; doubling England's successful passes total after 65 minutes. Steven Gerrard was being increasingly left to fight a one man battle in midfield as the efforts of James Milner and Young were severely below par, and Scott Parker repeatedly found himself chasing after the ball, rather akin to a stray dog.
As much as they tried, and as hard as they pushed, Italy just could not make the breakthrough, spurning a number of golden chances and the game was becoming an exercise in 'Parking the Bus' from England as Extra-Time loomed on the horizon.
Replacements were made with Andy Carroll and Theo Walcott brought on for England, Diamanti and Antonio Nocerino for the Italians. The impact of these changs however, was little, Carroll was largely ineffective while Walcott didn't see as much ball as he would have wished for. Nocerino slotted in to the midfield slot vacated by De Rossi and had a measured impact, providing a few incisive passes. Diamanti also looked dangerous. Italy had a late goal chalked off for an Offside flag and the predicted Extra-Time arrived.
The Extra-Time period provided as little in terms of attacking threat from England as the second half did. Italy were on top, and creating the better chances. Diamanti continued to threaten, almost curling a surprise shot past Joe Hart. However, no breakthrough was made and as seems custom for England in the Championships, it was taken to Penalties.
Two penalties were taken largely without event, and it was then the turn of Italy, against English penalty tradition to miss the first one, with Ricardo Montolivo putting his effort wide. Rooney then nervously put England ahead, however it was brief, and after Italy had put away their next effort with Andrea Pirlo summarising his evening with an outrageous chip down the middle of Hart's goal, Ashley Young summed up his abject tournament by firing his shot straight into the cross-bar. Italy scored their next effort and this was too much for Ashley Cole, whose effort was saved by the Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who had possibly taken his inspiration for the save from video tapes of Cole's penalty in the Champions League Final. Therefore it was left to Diamanti to take the final penalty, and he calmly sent Hart the wrong way to put Italy through to the Semi Finals and condemn England to their eighth defeat on Penalties.
Therefore, it was all over once again for the English team and fans, two years since the World Cup and it would appear there has been a little improvement, but not enough, and the amount of ball given away throughout their games this time around was very poor. England now have a return ticket home whereas Italy progress to face a tough task against Germany in the Semi Final.