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Charlie Christie – Italy taught other nations how to play the game to win European Championship


By Will Clark

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So, football isn’t coming home after all!

Italy are European champions.
Italy are European champions.

I am of course referring to the incredibly nerve-racking and highly-entertaining Euro 2020 final at Wembley from just under two weeks ago.

The match was a fitting finale to what was an exceptional month of football where we witnessed large crowds at matches for the first time in an age and it was magnificent to see.

There can be little doubt that the Italians deserved their win as, from around the 25th minute onwards, they dictated the match with almost all the second half played in English territory.

What pleased me most about the Italian win was the patience they displayed even when a goal down, and they never once felt the need to throw aimless long balls into the English half.

Instead, they continued with their aesthetically pleasing system which, at times, saw them make 15 to 20 passes without the ball leaving the ground!

My pre-match reservations as to whether the central defensive pairing of Bonucci and Chiellini could cope with the pace of England were totally unfounded with the ageing pair absolute rocks at the heart of the Italian defence with the former rightfully collecting the man of the match award.

On reflection, the best team in the tournament had triumphed, and there were certainly lessons for several nations to learn from during their Euros experience, including Scotland. The way the Italian team played was in stark contrast to the tactics we employed. Although it was fantastic to be rubbing shoulders with Europe’s finest again, we need to learn that, at this level, lumping the ball up the park to a centre-forward and attempting to play off his potential knock-ons will just not suffice.

Obviously, we do not have the world-class talent at our disposal such as the Italians or Spaniards do.

But nobody can tell me that John McGinn, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Billy Gilmour, Scott McTominay and Stuart Armstrong are not capable of taking the ball in tight areas and playing through the lines – they do it week in week out with their clubs!

We need to be prepared to be patient and brave on the ball and have trust in each other as was so superbly demonstrated by Italy.

Our defenders and goalkeeper must be more comfortable on the ball and be capable of passing and not just “clearing their lines”.

The game has moved on and we must move with it, or we risk another two decades passing before we all enjoy that fantastic buzz that being part of a finals event gives our nation.

n Charlie Christie is the head of youth at Inverness Caledonian Thistle.


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