Italy's 33 game unbeaten record

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WilliamMunny

Well-known member
Is obviously very impressive at any level and I'm not for one second suggesting they will not be formidable opposition on Sunday. Yet perhaps it's not all it is cracked up to be.

Prior to this tournament, they were unbeaten in 27 games since losing to Portugal in the Nations League in 2018. After that game, they drew the reverse fixture at home 0-0, had 1-0 wins over Poland and USA and drew with Ukraine.

In 2019, they won all 10 Euro 2020 qualifying games, albeit in a weak group consisting of Greece, Bosnia and Herz, Finland, Liechtenstein and Armenia.

Arguably their 2020 results are more impressive, remaining unbeaten in the Nations League against Netherlands, Poland and Bosnia (again), beating each team once and drawing with each once. They also had a couple of facile friendly wins over Moldova and Estonia.

Ahead of Euro 2020, they won 2-0 against NI, Bulgaria and Lithuania, before pre-tournament friendly wins over San Marino and Czech Republic.

Easily their most impressive results of this 33 game unbeaten run are in this tournament against the Swiss, Belgium and Spain. In the previous 27 games unbeaten, only 3 were against supposed premium opposition (Portugal and Netherlands) and they drew 2 of those.

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing really! Sunday's match is finely poised between two outstanding teams and could go either way. Rub of the green in key moments could well decide who lifts the trophy. But as I keep hearing about 33 games unbeaten, I decided to have a closer look at this run and thought I would post my findings. England should definitely respect Italy, but I see no reason to be intimidated by the unbeaten run.
 
WilliamMunny said:
Is obviously very impressive at any level and I'm not for one second suggesting they will not be formidable opposition on Sunday. Yet perhaps it's not all it is cracked up to be.

Prior to this tournament, they were unbeaten in 27 games since losing to Portugal in the Nations League in 2018. After that game, they drew the reverse fixture at home 0-0, had 1-0 wins over Poland and USA and drew with Ukraine.

In 2019, they won all 10 Euro 2020 qualifying games, albeit in a weak group consisting of Greece, Bosnia and Herz, Finland, Liechtenstein and Armenia.

Arguably their 2020 results are more impressive, remaining unbeaten in the Nations League against Netherlands, Poland and Bosnia (again), beating each team once and drawing with each once. They also had a couple of facile friendly wins over Moldova and Estonia.

Ahead of Euro 2020, they won 2-0 against NI, Bulgaria and Lithuania, before pre-tournament friendly wins over San Marino and Czech Republic.

Easily their most impressive results of this 33 game unbeaten run are in this tournament against the Swiss, Belgium and Spain. In the previous 27 games unbeaten, only 3 were against supposed premium opposition (Portugal and Netherlands) and they drew 2 of those.

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing really! Sunday's match is finely poised between two outstanding teams and could go either way. Rub of the green in key moments could well decide who lifts the trophy. But as I keep hearing about 33 games unbeaten, I decided to have a closer look at this run and thought I would post my findings. England should definitely respect Italy, but I see no reason to be intimidated by the unbeaten run.
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WilliamMunny said:
Is obviously very impressive at any level and I'm not for one second suggesting they will not be formidable opposition on Sunday. Yet perhaps it's not all it is cracked up to be.

Prior to this tournament, they were unbeaten in 27 games since losing to Portugal in the Nations League in 2018. After that game, they drew the reverse fixture at home 0-0, had 1-0 wins over Poland and USA and drew with Ukraine.

In 2019, they won all 10 Euro 2020 qualifying games, albeit in a weak group consisting of Greece, Bosnia and Herz, Finland, Liechtenstein and Armenia.

Arguably their 2020 results are more impressive, remaining unbeaten in the Nations League against Netherlands, Poland and Bosnia (again), beating each team once and drawing with each once. They also had a couple of facile friendly wins over Moldova and Estonia.

Ahead of Euro 2020, they won 2-0 against NI, Bulgaria and Lithuania, before pre-tournament friendly wins over San Marino and Czech Republic.

Easily their most impressive results of this 33 game unbeaten run are in this tournament against the Swiss, Belgium and Spain. In the previous 27 games unbeaten, only 3 were against supposed premium opposition (Portugal and Netherlands) and they drew 2 of those.

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing really! Sunday's match is finely poised between two outstanding teams and could go either way. Rub of the green in key moments could well decide who lifts the trophy. But as I keep hearing about 33 games unbeaten, I decided to have a closer look at this run and thought I would post my findings. England should definitely respect Italy, but I see no reason to be intimidated by the unbeaten run.
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England will win 2-0 👍
 
Good post.They are a very good team, however if Kane is not bullied by their old centre halves, England have a strong chance. Also if there is a strong referee who can see through all the playacting and diving from both teams.
 
They go helter skelter for 60 minutes and tire themselves out, if we can keep it tight to then, i think we will be fine. Their best player imho has been Spinazzola who is injured. Our bench can ultimately win this game with the necessary goal(s) built on some tough yards put in by the starting 11.

We can do this 👍
 
I think that it's best for Italian pride that they shed this albatross of a record in a major international cup final rather than against some low grade plonkers in a qualifier next year.

Better to lose to a trophy winning team, surely.
 
jeff_potato said:
I think that it's best for Italian pride that they shed this albatross of a record in a major international cup final rather than against some low grade plonkers in a qualifier next year.

Better to lose to a trophy winning team, surely.
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Good plan
 
The midfield battle is going to be key. Verratti and Jorginho have been brilliant mainly and only Spain have got the better of them.
 
Every game that your unbeaten run extends the pressure cranks up a bit more, knowing that the unbeaten run must end. Believe me this is the toughest game out of the last 34 for THEM because they are now expected by their fans to win
 
Italy have probably looked the best team over 6 games in this tournament, saying that they looked tired against Spain and I don't think they've ever looked unbeatable.

Last night I thought we made harder work of Denmark than we needed to, I think the nerves got the better of us in the first half (which is understandable) but we'll need to raise our game to another level on Sunday.

Its a cliche about respecting the opposition but not fearing them but its right about Italy, they are good but they're not Brazil of 1970 or Spain of 2012-2016 either.

If we play at our best we can win.
 
Uwefuchs said:
Italy have probably looked the best team over 6 games in this tournament, saying that they looked tired against Spain and I don't think they've ever looked unbeatable.

Last night I thought we made harder work of Denmark than we needed to, I think the nerves got the better of us in the first half (which is understandable) but we'll need to raise our game to another level on Sunday.
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Thats a bit disrespectful to Denmark. They had been one of the revelations of the tournament and for an hour looked very good indeed.
 
I tipped England and Italy before a ball was kicked, but on paper I think England have a clearly better team (subs included).

But the winner will be the team that performs the best on the night - that may sound obvious, but one or two of the England players looked a bit flaky to me last night, I hope that isn't the case on Sunday evening.

Its going to be a very tight game I think and maybe a single goal will decide it.
 
Abel Tasman said:
Thats a bit disrespectful to Denmark. They had been one of the revelations of the tournament and for an hour looked very good indeed.
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I don't think they were that great.

They were well organised at the back, they moved the ball around well in midfield but they were pretty toothless upfront.
 
Abel Tasman said:
Thats a bit disrespectful to Denmark. They had been one of the revelations of the tournament and for an hour looked very good indeed.
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Fair play to Denmark and to their coach, but they massively relied on the number of subs to play at an intensity they wouldn't have been able to manage without. They practically changed half their team after an hour, I believe that was planned for.

England probably deserve more credit than they deserve for standing up to it fairly well, although there were definite nerves at play too.

Italy obviously a much tougher proposition but psychologically maybe an easier game? Against Denmark, as clear favourites we had far more to lose. We were expected to progress, even though it's still a great achievement.

Against Italy there'll be no shame in losing and that kind of takes the pressure off a bit. It could go either way, home advantage probably makes us slight favourites, but not really much in it.
 
going 33 games unbeaten Is certainly impressive unless it’s against 33 total no hopers. There has been plenty if capable teams in those results that could beat anyone on their day , so it has to be respected.

all it means is they’re hard to beat, but all runs come to an end, someone’s going to end it, so it could be England.

As good as Italy are (I put money on them before it started, I’ve seen enough of them to know they’re not some invincible force, not that anybody is. They’re just a good quality side that can be beaten too.

just like our clean sheets, it wasn’t going to last and it never last night. Funnily enough, the tournament hadn’t had any goals from a direct free kick until then either. Two birds with one stone.
 
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