Well, well, well – six matches in to this year’s World Cup and it has already been a tournament to remember for the fans. Match number seven though is the one that most British football fans have been waiting for with baited breath: England Vs Italy. Coming into this tournament in equally indifferent form, coupled with the fact that there’ve been a fair few shocks in the six matches so far, many pundits were quite unclear as to which way this one would go. With Gianluigi Buffon out through injury and Wayne Rooney still yet to score a goal at the World Cup final, it seemed that the stage was perfectly set for the United frontman to break his scoring duct.
Read on to find our take on how things went down in Manaus!
The game started slightly more openly than might have been expected with Antonio Candreva creating the first half chance of the match after just two minutes with a low cross drilled in towards Balotelli, only for Gary Cahill to hook the ball away. Raheem Sterling responded to the threat instantly for England after a quick move finds the Liverpool man drifting into space about thirty yards from goal before lashing a fizzing shot into the side netting – it was so close, even the scoreboard thought it was a goal! England continued to take pops from distance in the opening exchanges with England’s Liverpool contingent and Welbeck making Sirigu work.
Candreva continued to give England a headache down the right-hand side as Wayne Rooney failed to track back and help Baines deal with the winger on a few occasions. Both midfields moved very fluidly in possession, Canrdeva and Marchisio switching roles often to link up with Pirlo and cause England problems. Similarly Welbeck and Sterling were making a nuisance of themselves for England and giving the Italian defenders plenty to think about. One instance of the two combining particularly well offensively was when Sterling drifted wide from his central position and picked up the ball on the right-hand side of Italy’s box. He then drilled a low ball into the box however the onrushing Welbeck was muscled away from the ball by the Italian defenders. Both sides were coming close though.
England had a glorious chance after 20 minutes as Welbeck left Paletta for dead when rushing down England’s right before playing a low ball in towards the onrushing Sturridge. It would have been an easy goal for Sturridge to score had the awesome Andrea Pirlo not got a crucial touch on the ball to send it looping just too high over Sturridge’s head and out for a corner. The English took their foot off the gas momentarily though as Candreva became more and more active down the right-hand side. Having taken advantage of Rooney and Baines’ lack of cohesion in stopping his effectiveness, Candreva looped a cross in towards Mario Balotelli for his first decent chance of the game only for the forward to get a weak connection with his header. The Italians were in the ascendency now and before long they got their reward.
A beautifully worked corner saw the Italians take it short before playing a low ball across the outside of the box to Pirlo who dummied his touch and allowed the unmarked Claudio Marchisio to pick his spot from 20 yards out and strike the ball past Joe Hart. England switched off for a brief moment and they were behind.
‘Here we go again’ I hear you say. Not quite. 90 seconds later, England were level. Up to that point Wayne Rooney had been having all kinds of problems defensively in neutralising Candreva and hadn’t really done much offensively either but he made up for it with this phase of play. Powerfully charging down the left wing, Rooney curled a near-perfect ball in towards Daniel Sturridge who only needed to touch the ball to knock it in and touch it he did to tuck away his first ever World Cup goal.
The punditry at half-time highlighted Italy’s biggest threat to England – Antonio Candreva. If England found an effective way of stopping him they’d have a much easier time, because they’d dealt with everyone else very well in the most-part. In the first half he put in a noticeable number of crosses of a decent standard that didn’t quite come off – if they kept giving him chances, surely one would wouldn’t it? Well, one cross did; and it was Mario Balotelli who was on the end of it to send Italy ahead again. Selling a fake to Leighton Baines, Candreva switched onto his left foot to deliver a brilliant ball right onto the forehead of Mario Balotelli at the far post who would have had a harder time missing than scoring, I’m sure.
England responded brightly again but not quite as brightly as they last time they went behind. Sturridge picked up the ball in the Italian half after the restart, expertly turning Barzagli before dancing his way past a few defenders, shaping up to shoot and being tackled at the last by Giorgio Chiellini. Welbeck made way for Ross Barkley on the 60-minute mark but it was Wayne Rooney who had England’s next big chance. Despite wrong-footing a couple of Italian defenders and seeing the goal open up for him, the United forward still couldn’t snatch his first ever World Cup goal.
The celebrations following each of the goals demonstrated just how much the conditions down in Brazil is affecting the players out there – Marchisio in particular looked particularly worse for wear after tucking away his effort. Perhaps this was the reason for the significant drop in tempo after about a quarter of an hour into the second half and by the time the five minutes of added time were announced, most of the players definitely looked a bit ragged as England were unable to pull back the equaliser they desperately chased.
Despite the result and performances of a couple of players, England had a very good game keeping Italy quiet for the most part. Had they been a bit more clinical, England could well have ran away with this one but it was not to be on this occasion. England’s next fixture against Uruguay now looks like a make-or-break fixture for both sides as both will want to win to keep their qualification hopes alive. Stick with us here at Fortitude to see how it all pans out!