AC Milan and Italy captain Andrea Pirlo has said that England attempted to copy Chelsea’s style of play during their Champions League Final when they took on the Azzuri in the Euro 2012.
Pirlo said that England tried to keep the same shape and play with the same reserved caution that won Chelsea one of their first football trophies for a long time. What he failed to mention is that Chelsea still needed the game against Bayern Munich to go to a penalty shoot-out for them to win.
Pirlo also spoke of his penalty where he chipped the ball past Joe Hart to give the Italians the momentum. He said that it was a psychological blow to the England ‘keeper and it may have won them the game.
It will be interesting to see if Pirlo has the same amount of time on the ball against Germany in their semi-final this evening. He spent nearly five minutes in possession in the whole 120 minutes against England and completed nearly twice as many passes as Gerrard and Parker combined. There was almost an element of fear from England as he wandered around the Olympic Stadium in Kiev regularly unchallenged by anyone in a white football kit.
Italy had clearly done their homework and isolated Gerrard as the player who could do most harm. They neutralised his crossing ability; Gerrard didn’t complete a successful cross all game, compared to Pirlo’s four.
For all that though, throughout 120 minutes no onside Italian efforts hit England’s football nets. For all their time revising on the training ground, Italy couldn’t break the English defence.
They will need to improve against the Germans who are far and away the on-form team in this tournament. Pirlo has said himself that Germany can create many more threats to Italy’s defence than England and they will need to be at their best if they are to progress and win themselves football medals.
Image Rights: Jan S0L0
