EURO 2020: ENGLAND FACE THE ULTIMATE ITALIAN CHALLENGE

NEW DELHI

If a tournament can be won just on the sheer drive shown by football fans, then England would be outright winners of EURO 2020.

The chant of “Its coming home” from England’s fans has reached a crescendo over the last month, as top footballing nations of Europe have been battling it out on the football turf across 11 cities to be crowned champions of the Euro tournament which is being staged for the 16th time in history.

But England will have to cross a formidable hurdle called Italy before they can claim what would be their 1st EURO title ever. In fact this is the 1st time that they have reached the final of the UEFA EURO tournament. Italy has won the title once in 1968, and has also been Runner-up in 2000 and 2012.

Harry Kane is leading the attack line for ‘The Three Lions’ and after a subdued start to the tournament, has now scored four goals in EURO 2020. Only Alan Shearer (5) in 1996 and Wayne Rooney (4) in 2004 have scored as many or more goals in a single edition of the main draw of EURO for England.

For Italy, the strike line is led by a player whose name may imply the term ‘static’, but that›s the biggest misnomer—Ciro Immobile has the uncanny ability to find the net with recurring accuracy. He scored a record 36 goals for his club Lazio in Serie A in the 2019-20 season. Though he has only netted twice in EURO 2020 so far, the final may just bring the best out of him.

The support cast from either side may well have an important bearing on the outcome of the final. Raheem Sterling has been in red-hot form for England, scoring thrice and providing one assist and also contributing via earning a penalty in the semi-final versus Denmark. For Italy, Federico Chiesa has provided the pace on the flanks and scored two goals as well. The 23-year-old, who plays for Juventus, wanted to study Cosmology, and may well be reaching for the stars as his form may push Italy towards their 2nd EURO triumph.

The clash on the pitch will match the sentiments of the fans off the field. The repartee echoing from the Italian fans over the last week has been – the trophy will be going home, to Wembley in England, which is the venue for the final, but then, it will be ‘Going to Rome’!

The author is a sports commentator who has worked on assignments for leading networks in India & Abroad and is on the Hindi commentary panel for the EURO 2020 broadcast on SONYTEN3