Italy won the UEFA Euro 2020 Final three months ago today and Leonardo Bonucci took to social media to remember the game against England: ‘I am still enjoying it.’
The Azzurri won the continental competition exactly three months ago today after a hard-fought Final against England at Wembley Stadium.
Bonucci scored the equaliser in the second half as well as a penalty kick in the shootout, while Gigio Donnarumma denied Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after Marcus Rashford had hit the post.
“The sense of belonging, the sense of the group, the sense of friendship. Three months ago, these values brought us on the roof of Europe and at every gathering, the desire to embrace my brothers is always overflowing,” the Juventus veteran wrote on Instagram.
“After three months, after several matches and many different emotions lived… I tell you only one thing: I am still enjoying it. Champions of Europe, brothers forever.”
View this post on Instagram
In September, Bonucci discussed Italy’s the Azzurri’s triumph at EURO 2020 in an interview with The Athletic.
“We were never presumptuous about it,” he said.
“We stayed humble and that’s what made the difference. We had a great team, a great coach and a great staff behind us. To give our country and ourselves that kind of joy was something truly special.
“We wanted to show them [England] that the final hadn’t already been decided.
“That they hadn’t already won. Hearing that song on repeat and the comment from Declan Rice saying England were 10 times more motivated to win than us… well, they’re the kind of mistakes young players make.
“You don’t say that. You should never say you want something more than somebody else or you’re better than somebody else.
“You should always put yourself on the same level as your opponent, keep a low profile and strike at the right moment.”
Bonucci on how to defend against Lukaku, Rice’s mistake and collapsed Man City moves
This is fantastic and great but more important to reminisce about this in retirement.
Truth be told, 5 decades without winning this trophy is embarrassing.
Also, football never stops. A little more attention and we should have defeated Bulgaria and Switzerland last September. Now we are suffering for qualification to the very end.
@dangerboy what a moronic comment. Embarrassing? Reaching 2 Euro and 1 WC final and winning 2 World Cups in the meantime isn’t enough? Go ask England what they would give for that kind of record…
@Dangerboy
What? Yes, it was a long time, but in international football it’s hard to rack up the trophies with each tournament only on every 4 years. Italy’s record is very good, and the envy of most nations.
@Dangerboy – what is embarrassing is a country like England only winning one international trophy (the last being 55 years ago). Italy’s record stacks up to anyone’s as you can’t forget that Italy also made Euro finals in 2000 and 2012 and WC finals in 1970, and 1994 where even though they lost those finals, it shows they were right up there across many decades. Hell, England has never won a Euro, the Dutch have never won a WC and Belgium has won zip. They, along with France, Spain, Belgium, and Croatia would love our record in winning international trophies.
Italy is the most unlucky team in world football. Italia 90 they were the best team and lost on penalties in the semis. USA 94 finals penalties Baggio played injured. France 98 they should of beat France in penalties if they would of, they would of played Croatia then a tired Brazil. Korea 2022 was an absolute joke with refs they were the favorites that WC. Let’s not forget Euro 2000 the red added 6 invisible minutes they were 60 seconds from wining Euros.
My point is I honestly believe Italy at minimum should be sitting on at least 5 WC and 3 euros all time.
I stand by my comments.
So many close calls, but all nations have them. Too many Finals lost. Come on. It’s a nation pushing 60 Million (one of the biggest in UEFA) and we are underachievers with the National Team.
Should have put Euro 2000 to bed when we were 30 Seconds away.
As for the World Cup, absolute trash in 2010, 2014, 2018. Let’s sort this crap out already. Give your head a shake if you think the last 3 World Cups have been pleasant. Do you people realize that since we won the World Cup in 2006 we have only won ONE match at the World Cup? Are you seriously happy about this?
But no, going to drag out qualification for 2022 blaming everything under the sun for not beating Bulgaria (who lost to Lithuania 3 days ago !). Jorgi not converting his spot kick and Berardi not scoring on a flipping breakaway versus Switzerland has really put us in a bad spot. The lack of urgency they have is troublesome.
Draws to New Zealand? What??? Costa Rica? Slovakia unlucky, absolutely as Quagliarella scored a valid goal but to have Slovakia as the other European team in our group was a wet dream and they conceded 3 goals to be put in this situation. ABSOLUTELY DIABOLICAL !
Please don’t bring up England. They have nothing to do with this. I don’t care about their misery. Say nothing about those useless Turks that have 80 Million in population and they suck.
I repeat: Italy are underachievers. We should have lifted 1 or 2 more trophy’s
Let me add:
There is NO reason why Italy cannot and should not have this 1/4F AT LEAST record that Germany have.
I am not going to check but taking out 2018 didn’t they make the 1/4F something like 9 World Cups in a row? Feel free to check if you want but I am throwing out a number that is close to it. But Italy? fighting for 2nd in the Group, Best 3rd Place in the Group. Come on, we should be so much better than that.
I get it. They are good. But we should have this aim as a minimum every damn time. As an automatic that shouldn’t even have to be said.
Not going to apologize for believing in Italian footballers.
what dangerboy is correct. It is true to other posters in here that Italy came so close so many times for example that 94 final had Sacchi put Signori at least as a super sub we would have won that game. Brazil was burnt out and we have Baggio injured and Gentile even was injured towards end of game and you know what they both missed penalties. Sacchi made a grave error to not throw in Signori who ran and scored like a road runner so there is this regret of us getting so close so many time’s but we have to focus on what we have in front of us now. Another example – me and my father counted about 100 xs Italy in tourneys hit the crossbeams and posts during a period of about 2008-2012, in fact in the 2010 WC journalists were commenting that Italy w ]as hitting the posts during training and could not score so clearly something was very wrong.
Bottom line-we need clinical finishers! For example there is a rumor that Allegir at Juve will test Chiesa as a forward striker soon and should eh happen to do this I forecast Juve to be within top 4 by end of Dec. Bit of defect of Chiesa though- he tries to cannon ball score form the midfield and it lands into the hands of keepers (you know Khan in 2016 said what he found odd is how the Italy players were aiming the ball at him) I believe that if Chiesa does not learn how to curl the ball he should not attempt to cannon ball from midfield. Also someone told Cheisa that when he dribbles past defenders he always beats BTW that if his shot is not secure flick it over to a bud like he did with Pelligrini and if the other player missed you still get a chance to tap it in, also with Cheisa who is an eager beaver never complaining I would tell him to not run all over the place like a Cuadrado and stay focused on mid and its wings, stay in the front, you will often see Cheisa out of breathe where they have to 911 sub him out because he is so eager and tracks back so much and never complains but we need him to conserve his energy and focus on the front. Just a few thoughts to help the team and yes both arguments here are valid we came close so many times but let’s correct thsi and win that WC that we can actually do it as look we beat Begle twice in 3 months who rank #1 3yrs + at FIFA, we can do it and we will di it. Let’s get at least 1-3 more Chiesa’s on that team.
Italy’s win rate this century is 50% – 4 finals and two victories (both on penalties) So it’s not great and it should be at least 75%. 2000 they were very unlucky – but 2012 was a comprehensive defeat. As a supporter though, a final every 5 years is exciting and is much more than other supporters get to experience – unless they are Spanish, German, Argentinian, French, Brazilian . . . .
Regarding Bonucci’s comments on that song (it’s coming home, it’s coming . . . . . ) one hopes that it will finally be the end of that rubbish . It’s the most deluded, conceited dirge ever.
@Dangerboy and KNowles…
As a lifelong Azzurri supporter I cannot agree with your analyses more.
An additional part of the problem with Italy’s underehelming performance at the Euros pertsins to the relative lack of importance ascribed by the FiGC to winning it. Part of this was a result of a cultural norm in Italy toward the Euro tournament as compared to the World Cup.
Whereby, the French, Dutch, and Germans were visionary toward understanding the competive, economic, and technical comperive advantages gained by investing time and resources toward winning the Euros, the Italian FiGC was simply behind.
Spain became competive AFTER the fall of the Franco regime whereby greater economic resources were then made available toward making gains on acquiring a competitive advantage especially by focusing on developing and perfecting possession futball.
Finally, after WC 1994, precisely because Italy was realiatically so close to winning the WC did the FigC actually start prioritizing the need to close the comparative advantage gap with France, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain. Italian futballing culture had an awakening of sorts.
Hopefully, this will continue and we can secure WC 2022 qualification next month.
Any thoughts? I enjoy reading them.
Danger boy – suffering for qualification? Italy will make it.. Siss are ok… early Sept Italy always a bit sluggish.. they will defeat Swiss in Rome in Nov… no doubt. Italy played well against Spain and Belgium last week… they will be fine
@Danger boy
Man you are negative. I am proud of the Azzurri and my beautiful country. What is the population of circa 60 million got anything to do with it. I advise you to change National team. Forse ti conviene a fare tifo per il Brasile oppure la Germania. You are an ungrateful individual and you are not a real Italian supporter. From now on, I will never read your comments.
WCQ only count on goal difference in group not head-to-head right?
As Azzurri leading in 6 pts, and superior on GD, so why everyone takes Swiss that serious……
?
Swiss trail by 3 Points not 6, and can pull level today. Just fantastic to give them an opening that they could take. Then what? Playoff again? Fantastic! Maybe we can petition to get Sweden again.
Correct, Goal Differential is the first Tie Breaker.
As such, we need Lithuania to park the bus today and help us out.
If Lithuania play today like they played against us in February 2021 or against Bulgaria last Saturday, we are OK.
Tonino,
Negativity nothing. I’m not blind towards obvious defects and embarrassing incidents that have and are happening like you clearly are. I hold them to a higher standard and detest excuses. If you are happy with the last 3 World Cups, then that’s on you.
Forza Lithuania
Well commented Vittorio. Realistic, objective, truthful and positive. We did not like not qualifying for the WC2018, hence the great performance at the Euros 2020. It would be an Utopia if anybody thinks that any country will perform and win every time there is a competition. I also like watching the U21. There are quite a few very interesting youngsters that could be ready for La Nazionale Maggiore.
Pep Guardiola has a famous quote and I’m paraphrasing- ” To win Trophies you have to be there”. We just have to compete, play our game, get to major finals, and also hopefully have some luck along the way like we did in the Euros.
Losing penalty shootouts is part of the game. We lost some tough penalty shootouts in the 90’s but It looks like karma is coming around when it comes to that. In ’90, ’94 and ’98 the losses were devastating- but the way I make myself feel better is in 3 major tournament finals (1994, 2006,2020) where it went to penalties, we won 2 out of 3.
Here’s a stat for you from 2002 to 2016 Germany made the semifinals or better every year but 2004 in major tournaments – astounding! So, 7 out of 8 tournaments semis or better. Guess what they have to show for it, 1 world cup. So, Germans can say the same thing we do- they should have won more.
Sure we could won more but at least we win some of the time because like Pep says we are there in the mix.
Now we are tied on Points.
Swiss doing a real number on Lithuania.
This is what happens when you give them an opening.