Italy defeated England to be Champions of Europe and in the process dealt a huge blow to the massive expectations of the English. The 55 year wait for a trophy was much expected to end at Wembley on Sunday, but Italy displayed much more intent and zeal and were deserving winners.
Volumes would be written by the analysts on England’s loss. The assessment would be critical too. However in my opinion the loss may well be attributed to two factors 1. England’s rather timid display after scoring the first goal, thus allowing Italy to mount unrelenting pressure on the English defence, eventually resulting in the equaliser and 2. The tremendous weight of expectations of the fans on nervy young English shoulders leading to errors in the penalty shootout. A much calmer response by the public at large to the Final instead of the hyper frenzy created around the match would have served England tremendous good and may be the result would have been different.
Notwithstanding the heartbreak and despondency of the loss, what happened afterwards was nothing short of abysmal and an insult to the great game of football.
Reaching the finals of a tough tournament was this England team’s achievement in itself and Italy was distinctly a better side that day and therefore blaming a few players for the defeat and abusing them for the colour of their skin was absolutely uncalled for. The same has been severely condemned by the Royals, the English executive and football followers worldwide and very rightly so.
These are the same players who give so much joy to their fans when they turn up every weekend for their clubs in the English Premier League and I am sure the fans would realise that and back them wholeheartedly in the future.
We shouldn’t forget that these players too are mere mortals made of bone and flesh and are equally susceptible to failure as we all are.
Eventually, its just a game. Watch it, Enjoy it… Forget it.