Italian mom! They humiliated us, we sons of Erdogan the Sultan, it did not happen by the peace treaty of 1912, in Ouchy, when we were forced to give them Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Fezzan and the Dodecanese! Forgive us Allah the Merciful, if we have not respected the Sura of the Cow (115, “The East and the West belong to Allah”), and if we have stained the memory of our great ancestors, victorious and splendid leaders capable of overwhelming every enemy army, after crossing deserts, mountains, rivers!
They touched the ball 794 times, we 515.
They pulled towards the door 24 times, centering it in 8 occasions and scoring three networks. We have only pulled the misery of the past, out. Desolating was the possession of the ball, just the 36,7 percent, almost half of theirs …
We behaved like the great admiral Mehemet Ali, commander of the fleet in Lepanto, who underestimated the tenacity of the Venetians, the will of the popes, the ardor of Don Giovanni of Austria. Their cohesion defeated us, because they forgot that they were Venetians, Genoese, Neapolitans, Sicilians, and together with the Aragonese and Castilians they moved against our galleys united by the inspiration of their creed. Back then, the historians wrote, theirs was anyway a victory without consequences. We hope ours is too.
We feel, however, shaken by ancient anxieties, even though we had arrived in Rome full of brand new, daring temptations. To take revenge for yet another setback: we wanted to organize the tournament in Turkey, for the fifth time we tried in vain, for the fifth time Uefa said no. And this refusal is added to the choice of Tokyo which in September 2013 beat the candidacy of Istanbul, on the wool thread of the last ballot … our federation, six years later, proposed to set up the Euro of 2028.
We will see, the attribution will be voted in the fall of 2022, but jurists specializing in sports law see it as difficult, because one of the criteria governing the award of European sports organizations is linked to respect for human rights and freedom of expression. It happened like this, in September 2018, when he won the German candidacy for the 2024, in front of ours. Or when France prevailed by just one vote (7 to 6) in 2010, and got the Euro 2016.
Italy therefore played with it a lefty shot. Rather, Mancini. Demonstrating that chorality prevails over individuality. That if the modern world is now fiercely divided between modernity and tradition, in football tradition is a fundamental element of modernity. You don’t win four world championships like this, by chance, but because you know how to play football. And if you are faithful to your glorious past. Italy is in full football Renaissance. We expected an Italy in defense, we discovered it all offensive.
We have been betrayed by our indecisive heart. The game, however, was useful all the same: it revealed our shortcomings, we need to examine them without embarrassment. There is still a long way to go. The lesson they taught us is simple: you have to know how to give up old habits, without however denying your identity. We have been beaten by a team that is basically fun, fluid and vibrant.
