The Italians were far superior from a technical point of view, but couldn’t kill the game off after Chiesa’s departure.
Any team that has almost 70 percent of the ball can usually be said to have dominated, and so the Italians taught the English a hard lesson last night in not just technical brilliance, but also what it feels like to be under siege.
England have some fine players, without a doubt, but the lack of composure in the middle of the park, coupled with defenders like Harry Maguire who were happy to hoof the ball up the pitch to relieve the pressure for a few seconds, meant the Three Lions were ultimately lucky to get to extra-time and penalties.
There were moments following Federico Chiesa’s injury when England looked a bit more threatening, with the Italians struggling to fill the void he inevitably left, but on the whole their 19 shots compared to England’s 6 says a lot about which team applied the pressure for most of the match.
The commentary and half-time analysis from RTÉ appeared out-of-sync with what had happened after Shaw’s early goal however, as Chiesa and Jorginho took control of the match after 20 minutes, somehow leaving Ronnie Whelan and the boys in studio to reassure viewers that the English defence was still very comfortable and looked impenetrable.
Italy, we were told, were running out of ideas.
Maguire’s eyes told a different story though, as he and Stones exchanged shell-shocked gazes after barely holding out for the half-time whistle.
It eventually dawned on Whelan early in the second half that the Italians were firmly in control and dictating the tempo, going close on several occasions before Bonucci bundled the ball home from a corner.
There’s a certain schadenfreude at play when an Irishman watches the English under siege, having had our own turf occupied for so long. This was England’s turn to feel the heat.
The game might have been over in 90 minutes if Chiesa stayed on the pitch, but Grealish and Saka’s introduction did help to somewhat level the playing field, with Jorginho lucky not to get a red following a dangerous studs-up tackle on the Villa attacker (and ex-Ireland underage player, I might add) in extra time.
Watching Marcus Rashford run on with paper in his hand in the last minute of extra-time told viewers that Southgate had prepared meticulously for every eventuality, not leaving it up to the players themselves to decide who would take spot-kicks.
You wonder if the paper also included instructions on where to place the ball. Penalties might be a terrible way to decide the match from a player’s point of view, but they sure do make for great drama.
Jordan Pickford, erratic as he can be, did well by saving two, whilst Maguire’s penalty was probably the pick of the bunch.
Jorginho meanwhile failed to replicate his heroics seen against Spain, but you have to feel sorry for the three English players that missed.
The mental strength needed to take a spot-kick in any big match is great, but maintaining it in front of the world’s watching eyes and a 6’5 keeper was a step too far.
There is an element of luck with penalties, and maybe Saka, Rashford and Sancho were just unlucky, but they’ll forever have to live with accusations that they bottled it, pondering what might have been.
The Italians were full-value for the win, but, with a World Cup just around the corner, English players won’t have long to wait until they are tested again against the best.