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Were Italy's performances in the group stage convincing?
Why do the Italians sometimes tend to flop at big tournaments?
Are Italy likely to do better in the knockout stages?
And how are the verbs to outclass and outperform used?
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Footglish Podcast.
My name is Denik Lucas and if you love football and want to learn English,
the Footglish Podcast is the right podcast for you.
So make sure you subscribe to it.
And today I'm joined by an Italian fan.
We haven't talked about Italy here yet, so that's exactly what we need to do.
Welcome to the podcast Domenico. How are you?
Thank you. Thank you, Denik, and thanks for having me.
And hi everybody, of course.
It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure, man.
So Italy, not exactly an amazing group stage, I would say.
But we also have to say that you had a really tough group.
It was a group of death, right? With Spain, Croatia and Albania.
So you got the job done in the end.
In the very end, I would say.
That's right.
Yeah, I mean, the first game against Albania, I think, apart from the goal,
it was a bit unfortunate, of course.
It was a good game.
I mean, Italy played fairly well, especially during the first half.
So I'm quite happy about the way Italy played in the first match.
The second one we got absolutely destroyed by Spain.
And thanks to Donnarumma, who is our amazing goalkeeper,
we managed to just lose 1-0.
But we were absolutely outclassed in that game, I would say.
Yeah, I watched that game.
And Spain are generally one of the best teams of the tournament so far.
Yeah, I would say so. I agree.
I think for your morale, it was good that you only lost by one goal.
In the end, it didn't matter what was more important.
What was really important was the last game where you secured your playoff spot.
Yeah, in round of 16, yeah, sure.
I mean, the game against Croatia, despite this thing that we just scored in the very last second, I would say.
I mean, Italy played fairly well too, I think.
It was quite a balanced match.
And then, of course, they scored and they got a chance to go 2-0.
That was the goal. Absolutely. That was the goal by Luka Modric, of course.
First, he missed the penalty. I was watching the game.
And then 20 seconds later, he managed to score and everybody was...
All the neutrals absolutely loved it because who doesn't love Luka Modric?
He's such a popular player around the world.
And then they were literally seconds away from qualifying themselves Croatia, right?
They would have been on enough points.
And you were in an unpredictable position because you had more points than Albania at that point, right?
Yeah.
I mean, they would have secured the second spot in the group, Croatia, so they would have advanced.
And Italy, in hindsight, would have not been able to participate in the round of 16 because with only three points...
There are many teams who have secured the round of 16s ending in the third spot with four points.
And there's even Ukraine, which were very unfortunate because every team in that group has four points.
And then because of the goal difference, blah, blah, blah, I don't know.
It's this complicated stuff. Romania is in first place and Ukraine...
There was a group, in this group, all teams were on four points.
On four points, exactly.
And it was only about the goal difference, basically.
Each of these teams has a win, draw and a defeat.
Exactly.
I remember the same thing that happened when Italy lost to Brazil in the World Cup final in 1994.
In that group, every team had exactly four points with one win, one loss, one draw, and then we managed to advance.
At Italy, despite not being the best team, I think that when they advance to the round of 16 stage and then quarterfinals and so on, they are very dangerous.
Absolutely, because you have your system, you always have a system, you have a strategy, a very good defense.
But I just want to go back to what you already pointed out.
If you hadn't drawn that game against Croatia, you would have been on three points.
And I was looking at the group of the best third places, right?
And you would have been in the fifth place.
Yeah, we would have been out, of course.
Yeah, right behind Slovenia. Slovenia are the last third place team who made it because they have three draws with three points.
On a goal difference, they made it because Hungary are in the fifth place and they have minus three.
Croatia are in the sixth place. So it would have been you there in the fifth place.
Yeah, but here we are. Tomorrow we are playing. So the past doesn't exist in football.
Absolutely. But you escaped death in the last minute.
Yeah, but what I just told you, I remember like historically, Italy either gets eliminated in the group stages or if they advance,
I don't want to say like always, but they very rarely, they often manage to advance and hopefully get to the finals.
So what would you attribute this to? Why is it like that? Why do you think so?
I think that there is always a lot of pressure on the team and then these players, they can perform under pressure sometimes.
Kind of this sense of revenge. There are some characters like Mourinho, for example, who are like us against the world and stuff like this.
For example, when we won the World Cup in 1984, the situation was almost tragic.
Politically, it was almost dramatic and we managed to become world champions.
And the same exact thing happened in 2006 when there was this doping scandals in Italy.
So the team was under a lot of pressure. Then we managed to escape. I don't know if you remember this, when TopDiscord
this penalty against Australia. We almost went out of the competition and then we won.
In 1994, the exact same thing. We were about to lose twice to Nigeria and then Bajor, my favorite player of all time.
Roberto Bajor, I remember. He had a ponytail. Exactly. The divine ponytail.
He managed to score two goals and we survived. Then we were beaten by Brazil in the penalties, but we managed to reach the final.
I don't know why, but it's almost always like this. People are skeptical at the beginning. There is a lot of criticism about this team,
but trust me, a lot of criticism in Italy. We are such a bad team and stuff like this.
But then when we advanced, the country is supporting the team and things change.
That's good. The better vibe is coming now. But I have to say you're not the only sleeping giant at the tournament that is underperforming.
We have to mention France and England. I think all these three teams, Italy, France and England, are kind of in the same boat in terms of under par performances.
Absolutely. When I talk with people about who's going to be the champions, we are talking about which team is better and which team is not.
Not a lot of people mention France. I don't know why. I absolutely agree with you.
But for me, they are not a sleeping giant because for me, they're just the best team. It's just a matter of if they want to play or not.
They only scored one goal from the penalty and then there was one own goal. They only have two goals and one of them is an own goal.
I'm not sure about them at the moment.
But it's just the groups. It's just like in the NBA, there's the regular season, which is a competition, and then there's playoffs, which is another completely different beast.
I don't know why nobody's expecting France to perform well, but I think they are among the favorites, of course. Now I think they are playing Belgium, right?
I'm not sure. I think so.
So they have this tough match. They're playing Belgium, which is going to be maybe the best match in the round of 16. The most balanced one, the most interesting one. But if they manage to win that match, which I think they will, honestly, I mean, France is going to advance in my opinion.
I think they can win the whole thing. No problem.
I also have to mention, Domenico, that your path, your route to the final in the round of 16 seems to be the easier one, right?
That's exactly what they say in England. The media in the UK, they say exactly the same thing because the two biggest names in your path are you and England.
England, exactly.
And then you have, so potentially, so you're playing against Switzerland on Saturday. So potentially, if you win that game, then potentially you might play England. And if you beat England, it would probably be someone like the Netherlands in the semifinal.
And then Bob's your uncle, you're in the final.
Yeah, true. Yeah, this is another thing which is very funny because there are a lot of memes in Italy right now about this thing of being that we are lucky. We have been lucky against Greece and we are lucky that we have this favorable draw, we can say.
But you know, in this kind of events, you never know. It's true that we know, you know, we are facing Switzerland, but Switzerland, actually, we can say it's a better team than we are right now.
But I think I am very confident that we can manage to win because, you know, we have something more than they do in this kind of games, I think, like historically.
I would be, you are right, I agree. Sometimes it's down to history and this kind of vibe and energy, right, from the fans and self-confidence. But I think the Swiss are no mugs.
You should not underestimate the Swiss because, for example, in the previous Euro, they beat Spain on penalties.
Remember, I believe it was when Spain were, no, sorry, it was France. France, I think France, right? Yeah, they beat France.
And I think they were 3-1 up or something like that. And then they managed to equalize and they won it on penalties. So I would be very careful about the Swiss.
They are a good team for sure. Absolutely.
And they played their last match of the group stage against Germany. I did not see that game, but from what I heard, they were the better team.
Yeah, me neither. Germany just scored in the final minutes, right? And they could draw that match and then Switzerland was even winning. Yeah, but it's true.
But as I told you, for me, groups and round of 16 are, you know, it's a different story.
Okay, so what's your prediction then? I think Italy is going to advance.
I think Italy is going to advance and maybe in extra time. In extra time. It's going to be a tough match. Maybe 1-1. Let's see.
Let's see if I can get this right. It's just a prediction, of course. Very tough.
So I would say 1-1 and then we advance and we score the 2-1 in extra time and we advance to quarterfinals, hopefully.
Sounds like a plan. We should say you are the current holders. So, you know. Yeah, exactly. Defending champions.
Defending champions. That has to count for something, right? So three years ago, you beat, we need to remind everyone, you beat England on penalties.
So let's see. In England. This is the most important thing. We beat England in England.
They absolutely hated it. They absolutely hated it. I can tell you that.
You know, the most, the funniest meme I've seen about this, which is not amazing and stuff is that, I don't know if you remember,
the Steven Bradbury guy who won the Olympic gold in like, it was skating maybe.
So everybody in front of him just fell down, you know, and then he won the whole thing.
And that's the meme about Italy doing the same thing, you know, so everybody, you know, falling down in Italy maybe.
Speed skating and short track. I remember that. It was at Winter Olympic Games. Yeah.
Well, we will see what happens. We will see how it happens. You have a well balanced team, I would say.
I guess, your defense as usual, you're cutting arch, all right. The goalkeeper is Donnarumma.
The goalkeeper is the best goalkeeper of this competition.
Your goalkeeping school is really good because before you had Buffon, now Donnarumma.
So it's really about your offense because that seems to be your weakness at this point.
So why do you think that's the case?
I don't know if it's very tough to explain because historically we've had, you know, golden generations, you know, with the Inzaghi, Totti, Del Piero, Baccio, of course, a long time ago.
I don't know why, but in the last decades, we could say, because I think we haven't had a decent striker in decades, honestly.
No offense to, you know, even Mokpe.
Gianluca Scamacca now. Scamacca is very young. I think he's very talented.
So I think he's a better player than Immobile, for example, for me. I know this is not a very popular opinion, but he can play with the team much better than Immobile could do.
So I'm very confident in what he can do. And he had a great season this year with Atalanta.
That's right. Yeah.
And then I'm very confident, you know, he's no Totti, of course. He's no even Gilardino, you know.
Nothing compares with these guys. But I think, you know, he can do the job. Exactly.
And then I'm very confident about how Chiesa can perform. I think there are a lot of players who can do very well when stakes are high.
So, for example, I can mention, yeah, well, the stakes are definitely high.
Yeah. Let's see. Let's see what happens. I wish you all the best, Domenico. Thank you. Thank you.
I hope you make it through and we will see. We will see what happens next.
And yeah, you have already outperformed the Czech Republic. So congratulations. That wasn't very hard. That wasn't very hard this time.
Yeah, but you had a tough group. Yeah, honestly. The first game was good. No, no. Yours was harder. Yours was harder.
We messed up. We messed up royally. So anyway, that's not what we were here to talk about. We were here to talk about the Italian team.
Thank you for telling me about your team, Domenico, and all the best to you. Thank you for having me, Zdeni.
It was a pleasure. Bye bye. Yeah, bye bye. See you. Bye.
Welcome back. In this part of the show, as always, I will be teaching you something because, as you know, I'm an English teacher.
I have to do my job. And that's exactly what's going to happen here. Domenico said we were absolutely outclassed in that game.
Remember, he was talking about the Italy-Spain game where Spain won 1-0, but they absolutely dominated Italy.
So when you say that your team was outclassed, that means that the other team performed much better than you.
It means that the other team did much better than you. It means that the other team was superior to you.
OK, but it's a very nice little verb to use there. And similarly to that, at the end of the podcast, I said, you've already outperformed the Czech Republic.
I was referring to Italy. I was saying that Italy made it to the knockout stages, whereas the Czech Republic, unfortunately, are going home because we finished last in our group.
Yeah, I don't want to talk about that anymore because, you know, you don't want me to get mad on this podcast again, as I did in the previous episode, do you?
Or is that something that you actually enjoy? I wonder. Anyway, let me repeat the sentence because now we have all forgotten what it was.
You've already outperformed the Czech Republic, right? So I was referring to the fact that Italy are still in the tournament, whereas the Czech Republic isn't.
To outperform someone again means the same thing pretty much as to outclass someone. It means to perform better than someone else, to do better than someone else.
I think outclass is more about the skill, you know, if someone has class, it's like skill, you were outclassed, right?
So the skill of the Spanish team was so much better than the Italian team, whereas to outperform is about the overall performance.
But more or less, these words mean the same thing. And there are more verbs which start with out in English. You could outdo someone.
You could outrun someone. You know, there are more verbs like that. And they all have pretty much a similar meaning, meaning that someone is superior to someone else.
Someone does better than someone else. OK, guys, I hope you are finding these language corners useful.
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