The Italian Captain is a bully!

[ICECream821]

The Italian Football Captain is a horrible bully.

He should have got a red card for the way he treated Saka pulling his shirt collar and dragging him to the floor.

Also when Italy were against Spain the way he grabbed the Spanish captain persuading him to do penalties on the Italian side.

I can’t stand him. He deserves no praise and his team played dirty!

@TheWhalrus

In football the refs don't give out cards for fouls just because they look bad/offensive....he knows the rules and decided to take the hit as there wasn't a huge amount of cover behind him. A 'tactical' foul is a yellow card unless you're the last player between the attacked and the goal. Saka knew this too.

Some would call it dirty, others would say cynical or even smart. Where you have certain rules, people will always try and exploit them. Jorghino's foul on Grealish a few mins later was probably closer to a red card as it looked a bit like a 2-footer from one angle.

Very balanced post.

Sadly some fans will look for reasons why England didn't win.

The fact is Italy won. I would say get over it... but people still mention 1966.... so it's unlikely that they'll get over losing the Euros after 2 days

@Honeybeebloom

Yep, I agree - for every 3 yellow cards the opposing team should be awarded a goal, might focus the minds a little!

😂🤣🤣
There seem to be a lot of people on here who have never watched a game of football before Sunday night and have no idea what constitutes cheating or are coming up with ridiculous ideas for how the game should be changed.

Well, I'd like to argue with you but you're right really, I'm not particularly interested in football

@Clancey

Aah that scum Chokeallini. The whole Italian team were as bad, it’s the only way they can win. There’s a petition going for a rematch, but it’ll never happen.

England lost because they were the weaker side on the day. Besides, you think the team would want to re-play the final because some of their disgruntled fans couldn't cope with the result?

Seriously...

Diving is also a tactic... see Stirling and the Denmark game

Yep. And Kane, also very fond of a dive.

Ah bless. You don't watch football normally do you OP 😂

It was a yellow. Yes it was nasty but it was a tactical foul to slow down play and give them time to get their defence back. Jorghino's foul was more likely a red as he went in with studs.

And that's not what happened with the Spain/Italy penalties! There was confusion over which side of the coin was which end so they did a re-toss. The Spanish captain wouldn't choose to do penalties at the Italian end just because the opposing captain told him to!

Some sour grapes and ridiculous claims from people who have apparently never watched a match before.

Italy won because England failed to capitalise on their early lead in normal play, and then missed 3/5 penalties. That’s all.

Football is a fast, physical, contact sport and tactical fouls are part of the game, same as cynical dives (which a couple of England players are known for), “soft” penalties (like England’s against Denmark) etc, it wasn’t the deciding factor in this case. Overly heavy-handed refereeing ruins the game. I’m sure the England team are devastated but I highly doubt any of them think they lost because Chiellini is a “bully”, Italy were just the better penalty takers on the night. That’s how it goes.

I love that you’ve specified the Italian Football Captain, just in case we were imagining someone leaning over the side of a boat to grab Saka’s shirt.

Italy won. Let’s move forward.

I’m not a fan only Italy’s captain but they beat us. He took his shorts off and threw them to a fan at the end 🤮

Jesus, let's stop coming across as such sore losers, shall we? it's football!

How come they don't choose black players for their national team?

How come they don't choose black players for their national team?

They have done in the past but Italy's colonial history is different to countries such as England or France and so there are far fewer black Italians who would be eligible to play for Italy.

It was a tactical foul OP, however i have been fascinated by Chiellini in this tournament. I think he has specific psych out techniques that he uses with the opposing captains. Very dominating, physically friendly and over-cheerful, like those people who shake hands deliberately firmly.

Clever man. You could see in the semi-final that the Spanish captain was quite pissed off with him, but had to go along with it to appear sporting.

That whole italian squad was formidable in every way.

And I also was very impressed with how well the young England squad held out against them in the final - it would have been so easy to let them get in their heads.

Hopefully bodes well for next year.

They usually play like that to be honest, it's one of those things that is technically within the rules just for a yellow card, but in reality stinks. Lots of teams they play adjust their tactics to account for the fact this is something they do.

I don't know anything about football I'll admit, but it looked pretty dangerous to me, pulling him back like that could have broken his neck if he'd fallen the wrong way! Seems bizarre that that kind of physical contact is allowed.

@ICECream821

The Italian Football Captain is a horrible bully.

He should have got a red card for the way he treated Saka pulling his shirt collar and dragging him to the floor.

Also when Italy were against Spain the way he grabbed the Spanish captain persuading him to do penalties on the Italian side.

I can’t stand him. He deserves no praise and his team played dirty!

I am still quite confused as to why it was not a red card. I watched live the head butt from Zidane and cannot understand why this was much different than that, especially as Zidane was provoked and targeted by the other team.

I wonder how many people saying "get over it" moaned about the penalty awarded to England in the Denmark match.

Do you not even know his name 😂

Some people are really embarrassing themselves - am laughing at the idea of England petitioning for a replay because they didn't win! Really!! As others have said, Chiellini is a super experienced player and he decided at that point to take a yellow for the team - if you follow football you'd know it wouldn't be a red card that far back. But clearly some posters have not got a clue about the game, that's fine but the rest of us can have a laugh when you post such sore loser rubbish!

@OhRosalind

Some sour grapes and ridiculous claims from people who have apparently never watched a match before.

Italy won because England failed to capitalise on their early lead in normal play, and then missed 3/5 penalties. That’s all.

Football is a fast, physical, contact sport and tactical fouls are part of the game, same as cynical dives (which a couple of England players are known for), “soft” penalties (like England’s against Denmark) etc, it wasn’t the deciding factor in this case. Overly heavy-handed refereeing ruins the game. I’m sure the England team are devastated but I highly doubt any of them think they lost because Chiellini is a “bully”, Italy were just the better penalty takers on the night. That’s how it goes.

Excellent post. Well said

@ElliottSmithsfingers

Some people are really embarrassing themselves - am laughing at the idea of England petitioning for a replay because they didn't win! Really!! As others have said, Chiellini is a super experienced player and he decided at that point to take a yellow for the team - if you follow football you'd know it wouldn't be a red card that far back. But clearly some posters have not got a clue about the game, that's fine but the rest of us can have a laugh when you post such sore loser rubbish!

I must admit that I only watch the big matches and not a regular follower. So I am mostly upset on it being such an overtly physical ‘tactic’, if it can be called that.

I thought Italy played great in the second half and deserved to win overall, but YANBU it was embarrassing to watch their Captain grab and wrench like that. My kids were like OH!

England also played tactically throughout the Euros, just (sometimes) less aggressively...

I don’t really care how many football tournaments anyone thinks I have or haven’t watched.

I think he has specific psych out techniques that he uses with the opposing captains. Very dominating, physically friendly and over-cheerful, like those people who shake hands deliberately firmly.

Definitely. He exhibits silverback behaviour and jostled the Spanish captain about like he was a rag-doll. All part of his clever mind games!

The Italians always play like this. Well known. See the Columbia match last World Cup. Even worse. Get ready for World Cup 2022!!!

I didn't personally say we should have won because of this foul, I did not like to see this giant of a man whom I believe is affectionately nick named the orge /gorilla in Italy yanking down a far smaller player from behind like a rag doll, he even sort of of gives it another good tug and yank because he's not fallen.

This is very different than running to tackle the ball and I wonder where that would end?