AS AN English football fan waiting since 1966 for another win, I wonder if the English tactic was to beat Italy on penalties.
I, perhaps naïvely, felt quite positive after the first 20 minutes, but the next 100 were a wee bit disappointing, to say the least.
So one can’t help feeling justice was done as England, again, went out of a tournament on the dreaded penalty shootout.
We seem to have a decent man in manager Roy Hodgson, apart from some of his positive comments on the performance I couldn’t agree with. I hope we don’t think it’s job done, as in other tournaments. I remember the players coming home from the World Cup in Italy in 1990 as beaten semi-final heroes, but that just continued our trophy exile in European and world football.
We seemed a million miles away from an average Italian side, let alone the Germans or Spanish. I wonder where we sit in world football standings?
Why can’t these highly-paid players, from the ‘best league in the world’, pass or hold on to the football?
Even Balotelli seemed to suffer from the ‘Premier’ disease with a hatful of misses, being by far the most wasteful Italian player on show on Sunday.
So we’ll stumble to the next tournament and doubtless hold the same inquests afterwards, without any changes to a system that’s doomed to further failure.
Still, look on the bright side, those missing penalties will no doubt enhance the two Ashleys’ huge salaries making adverts on the back of the penalty misses, with some burger outlet, or another!
Just hope they pay their tax bills in full!
Tim Siret, Millmoor Crescent, Eynsham
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