11 July 2021, Wembley. Italy 1–1 England, after extra time. Italy win 3–2 on penalties.
By Hamish McTavish
A Sunday night at Wembley, sixty-seven thousand in, most of them English, and a country that had been singing the ending for a month. The Daily Mail, on the Saturday, had split Bobby Moore and Harry Kane across a front: Let’s bring it back home Harry. The Sunday Mirror, that morning, had We Kane be heroes. Three Lions was back in the charts. Sweet Caroline was the other hymn. Gareth Southgate had a first European Championship final, at home, fifty-five years after the other one, and a side that had not conceded in the knockout rounds until this. Italy had Roberto Mancini, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Federico Chiesa, and Gianluigi Donnarumma, twenty-two, in goal. la Repubblica, in the morning, would not need an Italian pun. It’s coming home Rome. Bonucci, into a camera, would say it in English. It’s coming to Rome. It’s coming to Rome.
Wembley had already had the week. The fountains. The song on the trains. A home final is supposed to be the one they cannot miss. England had Luke Shaw, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Kalvin Phillips, Declan Rice, Raheem Sterling, Kane. Southgate had the waistcoat and the memory of the sixth one in 96, which is a poor thing to bring to a final you are expected to win. Italy had not come to read the Mail. They had come to take the thing back to 1968 and to do it in the ground that had printed the hymn.
A home final is a parish night whether you have a ticket or the other screen. The ones on the trains had been singing since the Denmark game. The ones at home had cleared the Sunday. You do not need a seat in the new Wembley to own this one. You need the month, and the Mail front, and the walk Saka had to take at the English end. If you missed it live you have been shown the saves since.
They kicked off anyway.
Two minutes. A move down the left, Shaw arriving, a finish at the far post. One-nil, and Wembley making the sound a home final makes when it thinks the script has turned up on time. Italy offered almost nothing for three quarters of an hour. Chiesa had the one that whistled wide. Pickford had the rest of a quiet half. Then the second half started and Italy, who had spent a tournament coming on as the hour went, took the grass. The pressure told on sixty-seven minutes. Domenico Berardi’s corner, a scramble, Pickford tipping Marco Verratti’s header onto the post, and Bonucci — thirty-six, the oldest man in a final of this sort — prodding in. One-one. Extra time, Chiellini dragging Saka down by the collar, the cynicism of a man who has lifted things. Southgate sent Saka on for Kieran Trippier, Jordan Henderson on for Rice. At one hundred and twenty he sent Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho on to take penalties. That is a plan. It is also a sentence that will follow him.
Italy won the toss and kicked first, at the end where the English were. Berardi in. Kane in. Pickford saved Andrea Belotti. Maguire in. Bonucci in. Rashford, late off the bench, against the post. Federico Bernardeschi down the middle. Sancho, also late, saved by Donnarumma. Jorginho, the one who had done Spain, saved by Pickford. Three-two, and Saka, nineteen, the youngest on the pitch, walking up to take it to sudden death. Donnarumma went left. Saved. Italy had their second European title. England had their third straight miss from the spot in a row of these, and a home final that had lasted two minutes as a lead and a month as a song. The Telegraph had The Ultimate Agony. The Times had Penalty Curse Denies England Their Dream. The Mirror had Heartbreak. The Express had It hurts… but we’re so proud of you, which is the consolation genre in one clause. The Star asked if anyone was for conkers. Bonucci had already given the only line that will travel.
Shaw had the two-minute finish. Bonucci had the equaliser and the shout. Donnarumma had Saka and Sancho. Pickford had Belotti and Jorginho and not the one that mattered last. Rashford had the post. Sancho had the save. Saka had the walk and the morning. Kane had the Mail front and a kick that went in and a night that did not. Southgate had the substitutions for the shoot-out, which is a kind of certainty you only notice when the three who came on are the three who miss. Chiesa had the half they could not live with. Chiellini had the collar. Mancini had the thing they had printed for Kane.
The three who missed took the street’s worst overnight, which is a fact of the morning and not a joke this piece is for. The song had already done its damage before anyone opened an account. Southgate had the proud-loser week coming, the Express already writing it. Italy had the trophy in the ground that had sung it home for a month.
They said let’s bring it back home Harry. They said we Kane be heroes. They said it’s coming home. They said we’re so proud of you. If you still think it was only the last kick, a funeral is only a Tuesday. The last kick was a nineteen-year-old at the English end. The month was the song. Rome collected both.
The film is up. UEFA still keep the shoot-out: Shaw, Bonucci, the post, the two saves, Saka, the shout. Do not review it. Watch the Saturday front die on the Sunday spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwvV06FvXbg
Related reading
- Football's not coming home — Moscow 2018, the same hymn, Zagreb’s reply
- The wally with the brolly — another Wembley night that did not go as printed
If the nights sit right, the shirts and the wall are at /shop.
FAQ
What was the score when Italy beat England at Wembley 2021?
Italy 1–1 England after extra time; Italy won 3–2 on penalties, on 11 July 2021 at Wembley. Shaw scored for England; Bonucci for Italy.
Where does the title come from?
la Repubblica framed It’s coming home Rome; Leonardo Bonucci, into a camera after the shoot-out, said in English: It’s coming to Rome.
Who missed penalties for England?
Marcus Rashford (post), Jadon Sancho (saved by Donnarumma), and Bukayo Saka (saved by Donnarumma). Kane and Maguire scored.