Italy Beats England in the European Championship 2020
Few things are more daunting as entering the lion’s den to watch the final of the European Championship 2020, between England and Italy.
I was clearly rooting for Italy. After all they beat Belgium. And most of all they demonstrated beautiful attacking soccer. It was anti-Italian Italian football: attacking, dominating in the midfield and clinical in the defense.
Thus, here we were, entering the Britannia Arms in Cupertino, passing the many Saint-George Cross English flags to set up near in the left corner of the bar.
Youngsters with even a slight connection to England felt that standing for the national anthem was the right thing to do, while they pulled up the lyrics on their iPhones. Ha! The elders just braced themselves for a battle, as they poured another pint.
The chants varied from “Sweet Caroline”, “England, England” to “It’s coming home!” Home to what, I keep wondering. England never won a European championship, and their one Worldcup win was dubious at best.
Unfortunately, the game started with a master stroke from the English. 1-0. It changed the entire final. England never got into their game. And Italy was out of it until the second half.
In the second half, Italy started showing their true selves again. “Finally!”, as you could hear from the left corner of the bar. England never got into it. Where were Kane and Sterling?
I felt for the 2 Italian sitting at a table in Azzurri attire near the bar. They were the only ones brave enough to show the colors of the enemy.
The penalty series were fascinating: not because there were ever nerve racking penalties to decide the European champions, but because here we were in a British pub watching the penalties.
The ups and downs were tremendous: the save from Pickford, the misses from the British youngsters.
Italy wins!
The bar emptied in a heartbeat. The stranglers only had one complaint: “It was Southgate! We need to get rid of coach Southgate.”