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@roboto
I think people are/were taking Denmark way too lightly. they're ranked 10th in the world. 2 places higher than Germany. England also got a result (although not quite as emphatically) against 14th ranked Croatia and smashed 4 goals past Ukraine who are ranked 24th and will probably climb up the ranking after their tournament results.
Italy are currently 7th and unbeaten in 33 games, but England are 4th and with a win could climb to 2nd behind Brazil after the Copa and Euros are over and the ranking recalculated.
An old colleague of mine from Italy has been telling me all tournament that England have the strongest squad and that their age means that they might dominate for years to come. I told him to stop winding me up. He definitely would've preferred to be playing Denmark in the final as England's style and adaptability is harder to plan against.
I'm quite optimistic that Italy won't be as tough as people are making it out in here. Sure they've bagged a few good goals from Chiesa and Insigne, but Spinazzola was one of their best players of the tournament and he's out. Their defence is slow and their 2nd/3rd choice wing backs are ineffective. England have looked solid defensively and have only conceded a worldie of a free kick ((Pickford perhaps could've done a bit better), so we shouldn't think that Italy are going to magically open up our defence and score a lot.
0-0. I won't be predicting penalties until ET is over, all my penalty predictions have been weirdly accurate so far...
I've never known a yentzing season like this.