Not exactly sure what Southgate was going for with a double pivot of Rice and Phillips, in the first half it didn’t even feel like they stopped Barella and Fratesi pushing on into dangerous areas and when you have Stones in the team you can just have him push up when you have possession of the ball in the same area that Phillips occupied, made the game a bit clogged when they were trying to play out imo. That said the Kane dropping in and Bellingham running from deep has the ability to be absolutely devastating both were excellent tonight.
3-1 maybe a bit harsh on Italy, but Di Lorenzo and Udogie sold far to hard not expecting the cut in on the Rashford goal and the high line got caught out for the other goals as much as I think Di Lorenzo’s tackle got enough of the ball.
I will forever cherish that playoff win but fucken ell thats a sliding doors moment. We were comical for a few seasons after that.