da fezbet： Last night’s 1-1 draw with Italy wasn’t quite the thrilling 90 minutes we were all hoping for. After a lacklustre first half, Hodgson changed things round and his tactics seemed to work with a beautiful strike from super-sub Andros Townsend continuing their unbeaten run.
da bet esporte： The Tottenham winger’s strike cancelled out Graziano Pelle’s opener meaning The Three Lions managed to earn a draw with the Azzurri in Turin. The only downside was when Chris Smalling appeared to pick up a knock on the 41st minute but it seems that the Manchester United defender had been simply feeling unwell.
One must be careful not to read too much into friendlies – but nevertheless – here are FIVE things we learned from England’s 1-1 draw with Italy:
Giorgio Chiellini hasn’t changed a bit
Giorgio Chiellini has always been known for having a presence in Italy’s defence and last night he showed Harry Kane what it is like to play against the “big men”.
It only took 20 seconds to leave Kane in a heap in the floor in midfield and the game progressed much like this with the defender never once getting penalised. Good to see getting bitten by a certain Uruguayan in Brazil hasn’t mellowed his physical style of play anyway.
Last year’s rising star is still just as good
While people have been ‘fan girling’ over Harry Kane, the rest of the England squad have been slowly getting on with business. Last year Andros Townsend was the player that was on everybody’s lips but since then fans have struggled to make their minds up as to whether he is a really good player that sometimes has an off day or visa versa.
One thing is for sure: carry on shooting like that and the fans will love you. Sometimes when clever passes don’t work and you can’t get the ball in the box the best solution is to just hit it as best you can.
Hodgson still coming to terms with ‘friendly’ aspect
My favourite moment of the match came after the referee had blown the final whistle. ITV went to interview the England manager who expressed his disappointment with the first half and when asked about Andros Townsend’s performance he came out with this fantastic line:
“Thank goodness he scored, without it we wouldn’t have got a point”.
Hate to break it to you Roy, but you don’t get any points in friendlies! After an awkward silence from the interviewer as he tried to think what to say normal service was resumed and answers went back to normal.
Buffon is still a superb goalie
Last night was Gianluigi Buffon’s 147th cap for Italy and the 37-year-old showed us all why he is just as good as ever. He is the 18th highest capped footballer ever and last night he was on form meaning England’s poor attempts on goal were easily saved.
Andros Townsend, England’s scorer, swapped shirts with Italy’s goalie after the match and the joy on his face was there for all to see. Let’s face it: Buffon is a legend, so to score a goal against him probably made it a pretty special night for the Tottenham youngster.
England fans got a bit carried away … again!
England fans have a terrible habit of getting ahead of themselves; every major tournament we all secretly hope we can perform a miracle. After one of the best performances for a while in England shirts against Lithuania, England fans started to dream that the Euros 2016 could be one of the best tournaments England have had in years.
Sadly we were shown that England haven’t quite made the high levels we had all hoped. Playing against Italy is a bit more of a challenge than Lithuania and we were soon shown that England could still struggle against the bigger sides. There has been progress though and that’s a start.