They Shall Not Pass

God, I love Italians defending a 1-0 lead. There was something brutally beautiful about the way that the Belgian attack was almost completely neutered by the Italian defence. Romelu Lukaku may have had worse evenings but not many. Every time the ball came anywhere near him, there was an Italian on hand to poke a toe in or kick him or generally just put him off. Ditto with Kevin De Bruyne who also had one of those nights. And when Eden Hazard turned and ran with the ball, they just guided him into less dangerous areas.
As the second half progressed and things got more heated, they resorted to the odd tactical foul. And when I say odd, I mean any time they had to. You could see them thinking ‘it’s about time for me to collect a yellow card’ and then wrestling a Belgian to the ground just as it looked as if an attack might develop. It was fabulously cynical.
When they played the national anthems before the game, the camera panned along the teams. The Belgians looked like modern footballers do. All massively over the top £300 haircuts and jewellery and ridiculous tattoos. Naingolan had what looked like a flower on his neck. They looked like young boys with too much time and money on their hands.
Whereas the Italians looked like men about to do a job of work they’d done many times before. The last few in the line were Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonnuci and Gianluigi Buffon. Combined age 133 and over 350 international caps between them. They were lustily singing the Italian national anthem and they looked relaxed and ready. They didn’t look in the least concerned about having to play one of the top ranked teams at the tournament.
Part of the reason that people love the Premier League is because it’s exciting and there are lots of goals. One of the reasons is that we do have some amazing attacking talent but mainly it’s because there are very few players who know how to defend anymore. (The exceptions to this last season were Wes Morgan and Robert Huth and look where their team ended up). Sure John Stones can tackle when required but I don't sense it’s something he loves. Laurent Koscielny is quick and strong but I don’t see him leaving someone in a heap on the floor on purpose.
Whereas the Italian centre backs go about their destructive work with a gleeful exuberance. They will do anything to stop you scoring which let’s face it is the entire point.They’re disciplined, well drilled, they work as a team and they absolutely LOVE defending. Martin Keown as co-commentator was almost purring at some of the tackles. And let’s not forget that they can all play. Bonnuci played the pass for the first goal and Pirlo would’ve been proud of that one.