It was probably with five minutes remaining in extra time that Gareth Southgate had realised that it was inevitable that the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy would be decided by penalties. He readied his last two changes – Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho – subbing them on with the express purpose of taking penalties in the high stakes crapshoot that is a shootout. But Rashford and Sancho have to wait; the ball is still in play and there is no window for them to come on. The seconds must feel like an eternity for the two young England players, as they become the final gambit of Southgate’s redemption endgame at the very venue where he had himself missed a penalty. Southgate’s wait has been much longer. He has had to wait a quarter of a century to get this poetic shot at exorcising those ghosts. Meanwhile the seconds tick away as Italy refuse to let up possession in England’s half and Sancho and Rashford wait.
The waiting, as Tom Petty once wrote, is the hardest part.
For England fans, the wait has been 55 years. The 1966 World Cup win at Wembley was their last major international trophy. For the fans of their opponents on this night – Italy – the wait has been 53 years, 1968 was the last and only time they had been European Champions. And it was 15 years ago, in 2006, that one of the most decorated international sides had won their last major trophy. For players like skipper Giorgio Chiellini and centre back Leonardo Bonucci, the wait has been almost their entire careers, both on the losing side that was swept aside by Spain in 2012, and then a horrendous outing at the World Cup two years later. In 2018, they, along with the rest of the national team didn’t even make it to the World Cup. Their manager, Roberto Mancini, knows a thing or two about ending long waits – he coached Manchester City to their first League title since 1968, in 2012. But he has had a personal wait of his own, to make a mark for his beloved Azzurri, having spent most of his time in Italia 90 waiting on the bench.
The waiting is the hardest part.
England concede a corner with barely 60 seconds remaining in extra time and Sancho and Rashford can finally be ushered on to the field. Their wait is over. Or is it? What’s really started is another agonising wait – for their turn to shoot from twelve yards away. The final whistle goes, and Wembley holds its collective breath as the teams line up for the shootout – a footballing spectacle that’s part gladiatorial, part ‘getting-crushed-in-the-trash-compactor-aboard-the-Death-Star’ feeling. Italy blink first, as Andrea Belotti misses the second kick. Harry Maguire takes a near perfect penalty to convert that advantage. Bonucci scores Italy’s third kick. It’s balanced on a knife edge at 2-2 as Rashford walks up to take his kick. He approaches, and then slows down, making Gianluigi Donarumma wait. This is tactical. The striker is trying to get the goalie to show his hand. Which way is he going to go? Time seems to be passing in slow motion as Rashford has another mini pause. This one achieves its objective. Donarumma commits to his left and Rashford goes right. But he seems to have waited just a tad too long before pulling the trigger. He makes contact maybe centimeters ahead of where he ideally should have. The ball just overshoots and hits the post.
The waiting is the hardest part.
Earlier in the night, England make an electric start to their first major final in over half a century. A Luke Shaw stunner created by a perfectly placed pass from Kieran Trippier from the right side of the box puts them ahead in the second minute. The fans are ecstatic. They barely had to wait to see how England would approach this. But then begins a waiting game. England seem to be making their minds up to wait this out, to drop back deep, to defend their early lead and to frustrate their opponents by simply stonewalling them. Their opponents know this trick. After all, the Italians perfected Catenaccio. And despite being outplayed in the first half, they are willing to wait too, wait patiently to have the ball at their feet, and then take their time to build up runs towards England’s penalty area. It’s a fine balance. As the night wears on, England’s wait seems to become more fidgety, Italy’s more determined. With England barely even attempting a shot in the second half, it’s only a matter of time before Italy capitalise on a goalmouth scramble from a corner and equalise. Gareth Southgate’s ploy of waiting it out seems to have backfired.
The waiting is the hardest part.
England choose to wait, but Italy capitalise in a moment that frozen on camera seems like a Renaissance painting
Gianluca Vialli is making the whole team wait. He is late to get to the team bus as it is about to depart to the Stadio Olimpico for Italy’s opening Euro 2020 game against Turkey. They win that game 3-0, and a superstition is born. Vialli makes the team ‘wait’ for every match departure from then on. Italy continue their winning streak. Meanwhile back in Italy, as the final unfolds in London, there is a waiting of a different kind. A waiting for things to slowly get back to normal after the devastation of the pandemic in the last 18 months. A waiting for exhalation, the desire to, as Chiellini put in a Twitter post after the game, “come back to life”. Vialli himself is an embodiment of this. He has warded off cancer, an episode he has seen through the lens of time and a wait to emerge free from, rather than something that would limit him. The legendary former footballer is one of the first ones to rush on to the field to congratulate the players as Buyako Saka, barely old enough to drive, misses England’s final kick.
As someone who has been a fan of the Azzurri and their players since Italia 90, a personal wait comes to an end for me as well. Earlier in the morning, I had watched Lionel Messi end his international trophy drought along with Argentina’s (they had not won one since 1993) by lifting the Copa America. The rush of emotions that followed tell you what the end of that wait means to a footballer who has otherwise won everything there is to win. I am a Liverpool fan. I know a thing or two about waits. I support India in cricket. A 28-year-long wait for a major trophy is not unfamiliar to me. Waits are incredibly hard. All of us have collectively been waiting for something (lockdowns to end) or the other (vaccines to be available) over the last year or so, and it has naturally tested our patience and our character in many ways. The same is true of elite athletes. The waiting is indeed the hardest part.
Three young English Lions – Rashford, Sancho and Saka, superb footballers all three – miss penalties on the night, and for now on their international CV that becomes a defining high lowlight. They are young and they will have many more chances to earn glory for their country on the international stage. They will have to bide their time, and wait their turn. For now, it might seem hard to them; an almost impossible task to lift them from this despair. But if they look to the other side they will realise that at the end of the wait is a rainbow that’s not out of reach yet.
As Alexander Dumas had written in The Count of Monte Cristo –
“…never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope.”
It’s just that, the waiting, is the hardest part.
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