European Cup preview: England and Italy meet in the final

7/5/2021 5:54:41 AM

    The European Cup has finally reached its most exciting stage. Italy and Spain, their rivals for many years, will meet in the semifinals. England, the next favorite to win the championship, will compete with super dark horse Denmark.

Semi-finals

Tuesday, 6 July

SF1: Italy vs Spain (21:00, London)

Wednesday, 7 July

SF2: England vs Denmark (21:00, London)

Rest days on 8, 9, 10 July

Final

Sunday 11 July

Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2 (21:00, London)

    Italy's performance in this European Cup is very eye-catching. Starting from the group stage, they only played in the quarterfinals and Austria to overtime. The other 4 games all ended the battle cleanly within 90 minutes, including defeats in the quarterfinals. The world's number one Belgium. The impression of Italian football is that the defense is very good. In this cup, Mancini's Azzurri continued this glorious tradition. Apart from Belgium, no team can beat Donnarumma in regular time. The goal was guarded, and it was a penalty. On the offensive side, Italy, without an absolute superstar, blasted 7 goals in 3 group matches and 2 goals in each of the 2 knockout matches, completely subverting the fans' inherent impression of Italian football.
    Spain’s performance in this tournament can be described as a stumble. In the first two games where the captain and core Busquets was absent, they encountered consecutive draws and were once on the verge of being eliminated. After Busquets returned, Spain's midfield became organized again, and the offense was much smoother. Two big wins followed. However, in the quarter-finals against Switzerland, Spain had the right to control the ball, and the shortcomings of not having the ability to finish were infinitely magnified. In the end, they were lucky enough to rely on a penalty kick. After two consecutive knockout matches reached overtime, the Matador Corps was at the end of the battle. In addition, the current Spanish pass and control tactics could not break through the dense defense, not to mention their opponent is Italy, which has a steel line of defense.
    Judging from the past record, the last time the two teams met was the 2017 European preliminaries, when Spain beat Italy by three goals. However, Italy was in a period of chaos at that time, and later missed the 2018 World Cup. Now Italy has been reborn. Spain’s veteran veteran Iniesta and others have also withdrawn from the national team for a long time. The strength of the two teams has long been different. And language. The two sides played against each other in the last European Cup, when Italy won with 2 goals; in the 2012 European Cup final, Italy faced the pinnacle of Spain with a 4-goal defeat, and in the 2008 European Cup knockout, Spain beat Italy on a penalty kick. From the record of past competitions, Spain has a slight advantage, but in this game, it is obviously Italy that wins more, and the score is expected to be 2:0.
    There is not much suspense in this confrontation between England and Denmark. Although the performance in the group stage was mediocre, after entering the knockout stage, England's performance has become a more and more championship-like. It can be seen that Southgate did have the suspicion of deliberately staying power before. The cooperation between Kane and Sterling has become more and more exciting, and both have found shooting boots. Denmark may have difficulty withstanding the attack of the Three Lions' luxurious offensive line. The two teams have played against each other in the last 5 times. England and Denmark have won 2 games each, and there is a tie in one game, which seems to be evenly matched. In last year's UEFA Europa League, Denmark remained unbeaten with 1 win and 1 draw against England, and even had the upper hand.
    But for England, which has never won the Delaunay Cup and has not won a major championship in 55 years, the European Cup is far more important than the European Union, and they will definitely go all out. Although the Danish fairy tales are very beautiful, the hard power of England lies there, and their counter-attack will end here. It is expected that England will be 3:1 Denmark. In the America's Cup, Brazil struggled to knock out Chile in the last game. Jesus deliberately kicked people and became red, and the team's offense was affected. In this game, against Chile, which is obviously weaker, the probability of Brazil winning is very high. The two teams have faced each other in the group stage. At that time, Brazil won by 4 goals. Therefore, Brazil should be able to reap a big victory in this game, and is expected to beat Peru 3:0.