It was a final which reflected the team ethic which has been the hallmark of success in this quite exquisite tournament. ‘A beautiful working group’ is how Gazzetta dello Sport described the team on Saturday morning.
All the advance talk was of Ronaldo, Pogba, de Bruyne and the things they might do. Yet the sides who travelled far - England, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and Spain – often proved better than the sum of their parts.
The proletariat of those teams often did the business. Whoever guessed that Luke Shaw and Kieran Trippier would be the ones combining to send England on their way last night? When Italy seemed lost, they remembered that quality, too.
England and Italy reached the final as teams greater than the sum of their parts
We’d seen it in Roberto Mancini’s team since they raised the curtain on it all with verve and flair on the banks of the River Tiber 31 days ago. Where they set the tone, others followed. Ahead of last night’s final, there were more goals per game - 2.8 – than any European Championships since 1976.
There was also more football played by some distance than the inferior 2016 tournament, with seven out of the 14 knockout games going to extra-time before last night. Those doing the playing had just concluded domestic campaigns for which they had been no pre-season. Yet the intensity and appetite for the fight was absolutely unremitting.
The tournament propelled new names into the firmament – England’s Bukayo Sako, Denmark’s Joakim Maehle and Mikkel Damsgaard, Spain’s Dani Olmo, Switzerland’s Breel Embolo and the Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick.
Bukayo Saka emerged as one of the best young talents of any side in the competition
Those who departed earlier also proved a thing or two. Wales’ goalkeeper Danny Ward and defender Joe Rodon revealed they warrant more club football than they’ve been given at Leicester at Tottenham.
Some scoffed at Scotland’s early departure, though the goalless draw at Wembley – one of only two in the tournament – revealed more about Scottish quality than English’s failings. Perhaps it did not help them to begin in the searing spotlight of Hampden, where they lost their heads against the Czechs. Billy Gilmour signed his name up in lights.
The tournament’s shrewd, uncomplicated, unfussy refereering should give the Premier League cause to reflect now. The immense common sense attached to its rapid VAR decision-making has also made a mockery
