Euro 2024: Italy steal it at the death

One of the great things about football is how a late goal can change how you feel about a game.

To say I watched Italy versus Croatia last night feels a bit too passive. I endured Italy versus Croatia. This was not a good game of football. There were moments here and there, a header well saved in the first half was the best chance Italy could muster. Croatia continued to look like a team who have been around the block too many times, those old legs just unable to find the kind of zip needed.

Then in the second half a penalty for handball went their way. It’s difficult these days to fully understand what is and what isn’t handball, but this one looked fairly clear cut. Up stepped Luka Modric, and while his attempt wasn’t great, it was a fantastic save from Gianluigi Donnarumma – by far the best keeper at the tournament thus far, and he might have to keep that up based on what we’ve seen from Italy.

The ball was cleared, but Croatia kept hold of it and I thought the quality of the cross back into the box from Luka Sucic was superb. That resulted in a flicked effort on goal from Ante Budimir, but again Donnarumma produced a brilliant save. His defenders stood and watched on with admiration rather than reacting, and Modric pounced to put the ball home from close range and make it 1-0.

To be fair to Italy, they responded with some domination of possession and territory. They had 76% possession after the goal and had 7 shots. Croatia didn’t have a single attempt after they scored. The problem for the Italians was a genuine lack of quality once they got to the final third. Bastoni headed over from a corner when he should have scored, and that was the best chance. There was no spark, no zip, no bit of magic from anyone. The final pass, the final decision, was always poor. Long gone the days when someone Italian sides had that special player with bit extra to help them find a way through.

They resorted to humping it long towards West Ham reject Gianluca…

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Author : arseblog

Publish date : 2024-06-25 06:19:41

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