The Italians are not known for beautiful football, so, it's out of place to expect some silky football from them. However, what they lack in silkiness, they make up for in discipline and attitude; we saw none yesterday.
Even though I didn't expect Italy to have an easy ride over Switzerland, I at least expected them to be dominant, especially being defending champions and one of the tournament favorites but it felt like they were the outsiders on the day.
In the opening exchanges, I couldn't understand if I was seeing the Italian team play as they were a shadow of themselves. I felt they'd grow into the game and the more I hoped they got better, the more Switzerland held grip of the game.
Were the Swiss a better side or had a prolific striker, perhaps, it could have been a whitewash for Italy as the Reds created so many chances to kill them game but were themselves profligate.
I wondered if they had a Jorginho in the middle, perhaps, he would have helped steady the tide as Switzerland controlled everything in the middle and on every other part of the field.
Personally, I'm so happy for Granit Xhaka that he's finally living up to the potential that we all thought he could. Just like he is always underrated, his record of having lost just two matches since leaving Arsenal is amazing. Sadly, one of those losses cost them the Europa league title. He had so much time on the ball yesterday that he once spent more than 5 seconds on the ball in front of the Italian goal and was still able to throw a defence-splitting pass.
One thing I'm particularly impressed about in his game is how much he has matured from that red-card-waiting-to-happen guy to that leader you can count on. He was very instrumental in Bayer Leverkusen's successful 2023/2024 campaign, scoring the only and winning goal in their DFB Pokal triumph.
Now, it's a date with England in the quarterfinals. On one side, I'd love to see Xhaka progress, on the other, I'm still team England, even though I feel Spain are top favorites. What a match up we have on our hands. I hope it lives up to expectation.
Who do you expect to win the game between Switzerland and England?