European Finals.

[Harry Genshaw]

Absolutely belting effort. Great first half tonight, outplayed in the 2nd but possibly shaded it in extra time. Magnificent effort all tournament. Proud of everyone of em

[nicholaldo]

Crikey, losing in the semi-final and final feels even worse.

[BWFC_Insane]

Also I think the three penalty misses were all dreadful kicks. All this nonsense about run ups. Run up and thump it top corner, bottom corner or middle of the goal. Statistically you are most likely to score there. Top or bottom corner ideally. Penalties trying to trick the keeper are far too low probability for such occasions in my view. Maguire and Kane showed the technique.

[LeverEnd]

What I said at the start of the tournament did come back to bite us in the end. The played like heroes but Rice and Phillips for all they did are just not a midfield that is versatile or good enough to play against Verrati etc and Italy exploited that.

Hardly, they scored a scabby goal, and we lost by giving penalties to two guys who had just come off the bench and a 19-yo who shouldn't have been on the pitch

Oh come on England have done well but Italy had their number tonight as soon as the final 20 minutes were over. We were murdered in midfield. Penalty shoot out was literally men against boys. And they still gave us a chance.

[Gooner Girl]

Don’t really care much about England tbh. Club over country every time, but penalty shoot outs are horrible and I felt a bit tearful at the end seeing our boy Saka so upset. He never takes pens for Arsenal and he’s 19 ffs! Why were Grealish and Sterling not stepping up?

[BWFC_Insane]

What I said at the start of the tournament did come back to bite us in the end. The played like heroes but Rice and Phillips for all they did are just not a midfield that is versatile or good enough to play against Verrati etc and Italy exploited that.

Hardly, they scored a scabby goal, and we lost by giving penalties to two guys who had just come off the bench and a 19-yo who shouldn't have been on the pitch

England had 34% possession and 6 shots to Italy’s 19. Let’s not pretend we weren’t totally outplayed for most of that game.

We showed superb character to hang in and take it all the way but yeah…we ended up relying on penalties because in open play we got bossed in midfield.

[CrazyHorse]

Don’t really care much about England tbh. Club over country every time, but penalty shoot outs are horrible and I felt a bit tearful at the end seeing our boy Saka so upset. He never takes pens for Arsenal and he’s 19 ffs! Why were Grealish and Sterling not stepping up?

Don't really care much about your opinion tbh.

[LeverEnd]

Don’t really care much about England tbh. Club over country every time, but penalty shoot outs are horrible and I felt a bit tearful at the end seeing our boy Saka so upset. He never takes pens for Arsenal and he’s 19 ffs! Why were Grealish and Sterling not stepping up?

Don't really care much about your opinion tbh.

Well, you care enough to comment on it

[LeverEnd]

They've done really well, but they haven't been good enough to deserve to win it. Bunch of good lads and hard working pros led by a nice bloke. Admirable in so many ways and gave us some great moments.

[BWFC_Insane]

They've done really well, but they haven't been good enough to deserve to win it. Bunch of good lads and hard working pros led by a nice bloke. Admirable in so many ways and gave us some great moments.

See England won the cricket World Cup and we were the best side. But on the day we were lucky, lucky to take NZ to a super over. But we did and won. The frustration for me is whilst Italy were the better side we had a penalty shoot out where the missed two and we still lost. No problem with the individuals but as a football nation we still lack the ruthlessness that you really need. Many sides have won tournaments playing for pens from twenty minutes in. There is still something in our mentality to fix. Happens so often it can’t just be luck.

[LeverEnd]

They've done really well, but they haven't been good enough to deserve to win it. Bunch of good lads and hard working pros led by a nice bloke. Admirable in so many ways and gave us some great moments.

See England won the cricket World Cup and we were the best side. But on the day we were lucky, lucky to take NZ to a super over. But we did and won. The frustration for me is whilst Italy were the better side we had a penalty shoot out where the missed two and we still lost. No problem with the individuals but as a football nation we still lack the ruthlessness that you really need. Many sides have won tournaments playing for pens from twenty minutes in. There is still something in our mentality to fix. Happens so often it can’t just be luck.

There has to be serious questions asked about that shoot out strategy. It was clearly planned, subs coming on with instructions in their socks. You hear people saying it's a lottery. Is it feck. Its a test of nerve. And not a place for kids who've never taken a competitive penalty.

[Burnden Paddock]

Don’t really care much about England tbh. Club over country every time, but penalty shoot outs are horrible and I felt a bit tearful at the end seeing our boy Saka so upset. He never takes pens for Arsenal and he’s 19 ffs! Why were Grealish and Sterling not stepping up?

Grealish and Sterling totally bottled it. Let a 19yo kid step up and take the fall. Wankers!

[nicholaldo]

They've done really well, but they haven't been good enough to deserve to win it. Bunch of good lads and hard working pros led by a nice bloke. Admirable in so many ways and gave us some great moments.

See England won the cricket World Cup and we were the best side. But on the day we were lucky, lucky to take NZ to a super over. But we did and won. The frustration for me is whilst Italy were the better side we had a penalty shoot out where the missed two and we still lost. No problem with the individuals but as a football nation we still lack the ruthlessness that you really need. Many sides have won tournaments playing for pens from twenty minutes in. There is still something in our mentality to fix. Happens so often it can’t just be luck.

Indeed. I knew from the moment the referee blew the final whistle our opportunity to win it had probably gone. It hurts a huge amount that Pickford dragged us back into it only for us to throw it away again, but I won't be blaming a teenager who was placed in a position he probably shouldn't have been in.

[BWFC_Insane]

They've done really well, but they haven't been good enough to deserve to win it. Bunch of good lads and hard working pros led by a nice bloke. Admirable in so many ways and gave us some great moments.

See England won the cricket World Cup and we were the best side. But on the day we were lucky, lucky to take NZ to a super over. But we did and won. The frustration for me is whilst Italy were the better side we had a penalty shoot out where the missed two and we still lost. No problem with the individuals but as a football nation we still lack the ruthlessness that you really need. Many sides have won tournaments playing for pens from twenty minutes in. There is still something in our mentality to fix. Happens so often it can’t just be luck.

There has to be serious questions asked about that shoot out strategy. It was clearly planned, subs coming on with instructions in their socks. You hear people saying it's a lottery. Is it feck. Its a test of nerve. And not a place for kids who've never taken a competitive penalty.

Yeah I mean you could have been saying it was genius bringing Rashford and Sancho on. I didn’t like it just felt wrong to me but could have been a stroke of genius. Saka was bizarre. But perhaps he put his hand up. Kid looked overawed all night. Sterling and Shaw for me were takers. But all easy in hindsight. I’ve had a theory on penalties for a long time that in training every player should have two pens. Top or bottom corner or up middle. Practice them then Pre game decide which it is and don’t change your mind. Shoot outs need to be simple. Power usually wins if on target.

[BWFC_Insane]

Don’t really care much about England tbh. Club over country every time, but penalty shoot outs are horrible and I felt a bit tearful at the end seeing our boy Saka so upset. He never takes pens for Arsenal and he’s 19 ffs! Why were Grealish and Sterling not stepping up?

Grealish and Sterling totally bottled it. Let a 19yo kid step up and take the fall. Wankers!

Shaw would have been one of first choices for me. But you don’t know it wasn’t a dictat rather than a choice for anyone.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

My only criticism is bring subs on to take penalties so late on. They didn't have time to get into it, take some touches and get ja feel for it. Taking a penalty so soon after coming on was a recipe for disaster.

Well done Italy. Better team on the day. Plenty of room for the England lads to progress and be even better next time.

[GhostoftheBok]

This was Italy's tournament from start to finish.

Tonight was all the reasons I don't like Southgate as England manager, but we reached the final so it's hard to justify complaining.

Roll on the world cup. This is a young team and has plenty of time to improve.

[nicholaldo]

This was Italy's tournament from start to finish.

Tonight was all the reasons I don't like Southgate as England manager, but we reached the final so it's hard to justify complaining.

Roll on the world cup. This is a young team and has plenty of time to improve.

It's frustrating that neither Grealish nor Sancho saw action until extra time in my opinion.

[BWFC_Insane]

This was Italy's tournament from start to finish.

Tonight was all the reasons I don't like Southgate as England manager, but we reached the final so it's hard to justify complaining.

Roll on the world cup. This is a young team and has plenty of time to improve.

Not sure it needs to improve much. What it needs is a Verratti. Or a modern day Gascoigne. Someone with real all round class in midfield. If we’d had such a player we’d have had a great chance rather than chasing shadows against Italy’s midfield for much of the match.

[jmjhb]

Bellingham in a couple of years then