Luciano Spalletti’s team did not last long.

Integrity

We are accustomed to the fact that matches with a bright sign, when powers considered “football” meet, are regularly emotional, combative and tense. The match between England and Italy should be like this by definition. Added to this were other aggravating circumstances, both symbolic and tournament-related.

The irony of the draw itself is symbolic. Two finalists from the previous Euro were included in a qualifying group for the European Championship. It seems like you can’t think of a better additional motivation. We will include the final selection phase as the tournament phase. England’s early exit from the Euro and Italy’s prospects in this cycle depended on this match. Ten years ago, such a position in the tournament would have been enough for a frenetic battle. But none of the three aggravations worked. And this is also a fault… of UEFA.

Factor of UEFA

In previous years, the European Championship was the main tournament of the Old World, the second most important tournament in the world. And by some it was rated higher than the World Cup, since for the latter Europe with its strong teams has an artificially limited quota in favor of the more “acceptable” teams from Africa and Asia.

Now of UEFA has the League of Nations, which seems to have the status of the second tournament in Europe and was simply supposed to give a competitive meaning to the previously familiar friendlies and control matches. In reality, we have an unfocused focus of attention. In friendly matches, teams could safely experiment, organize any experiments with formations and tactics to ideally prepare for the main matches – in the selection.

No question: experiment in the League of Nations. And someone actually does it, ruining this tournament mediocrely. Just like England. However, if you start to succeed there, on the contrary, you will begin to sacrifice selection, since through the League of Nations you can also enter the European Championship. And so conditional English focuses on selection, and conditional Italians focus on the League of Nations. What will we end up with? Slow fighting in both tournaments. By increasing the number of tournaments, of UEFA it implicitly reduces the value of each individual.

This is more or less what we saw in this match at Wembley. The English at home had a great desire to shine and get to Euro 2024 in front of their demanding home crowd, confirming themselves as the favorites of the entire cycle. They were one step away from it. And Italy has allowed them to take this step generally with ease and naturalness. Because Italy still has the chance to qualify for Euro 2024 through the League of Nations. All. This immediately reduces the drama.

We add here the previous weakening of the qualifying tournament, carried out by of UEFA. Starting from Euro 2016, when the number of participants in the final phase increased from 16 to 24. Now it is easier for a more or less normal team, even one limping on both legs, to reach the European Championship than to fail. But even so, the Italians’ chances are not so guaranteed. They are now third in the group, behind not only England but also three points behind Ukraine. At the same time they have an advantage over the Ukrainians: they have the game in hand.

Ironically, this “reserve” match is against North Macedonia. He seems like a football dwarf, but already in this cycle this team drew with Italy (1: 1), and world Cup-2022 Italy didn’t make it precisely because of North Macedonia, who defeated them sensationally. Therefore, of course, it is logical to award three points to the Italians in this battle, but this should be done with caution. And it turns out that the match with Ukraine should essentially be a play-off for Italy. Can this arrangement be called ideal? Or one in which the Italians can afford to play ugly, willful and slow like in the second half of the match against England? But even a defeat for Ukraine will not mean the loss of all opportunities for Italy to join the Euro. And this immediately devalues ​​everything that happens in the selection.

Moral factor

Well, okay, let’s say that the tournament motivation in the European Championship qualifiers is reduced. But what to do with the mood, with the psychology of football, because these are big names, these are the finalists of the last European Championship. The fact is that after the final these rivals already met in the same League of Nations: the intensity had already decreased due to the number of meetings. And the main problem is that the current Italian team no longer feels like champions. Even if this is the current title holder. And it hasn’t been long since its conquest. But remind an inattentive fan that the Italians now have the title, he will be surprised.

The point is not just that Italy seemed to have erased itself from the top when it failed miserably to reach the World Cup in Qatar. Although this too. Watch Italy’s starting eleven against England. There are only three people in that ending. It turns out like in the paradox of the ship of Theseus. The name is the same, but the content is different.

Furthermore, today’s Italy, which has changed coach, seems to be in the initial phase of finding itself. It has no recognizable structure, no recognizable execution, no recognizable style, or even any recognizable composition. Almost like the Dutch national team, where the renewal took place in such a way that there were no more stars with the status of leaders, the face of the team remained. All faces are dull, the colors are washed away, as they say.

Even the first goal at Wembley only gave this Italy confidence for a short period of time. England, without any additional effort, regained control of the game and the balance in the scoring, which was already on their side in the second half. Compared to their Italian opponents, Kane, Bellingham, Rashford and Foden seemed like celestial beings, players of a completely different level. And the Italians themselves seemed to realize this, preferring not to argue in the second half, but to prepare for North Macedonia and “clash” with Ukraine. So here we are talking less about the battle between two titans, and more about how England, in class, took their usual three points from a weaker opponent who realized their own weakness.