Tactical look at the 2020 Euro final: Italy-England

LONDON — It’s being billed as the best team of the tournament against, in effect, the host nation.

The European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium on Sunday has all the makings of a tight and tense title match.

Here’s where the game could be won and lost:

Midfield disparity

Midfield is the department where Italy undoubtedly has the edge in terms of quality and experience.

Marco Verratti is one of the few genuinely world-class midfielders at the tournament, Jorginho is a newly crowned Champions League winner and is the conductor of play in front of the defense, while Nicolo Barella — at age 24, the youngest of the trio — has been a revelation coming off a title-winning season at Inter Milan.

While England’s hard-working, central-midfield pairing of Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips gives the team a solid base, they should be overmatched.

“The games against Spain (in the semifinals) and England will be very different,” Verratti said. “The midfield is a key section. We can perhaps make the difference there and must dictate the pace of the game.”

Expect Mason Mount, England’s attacking midfielder, to play a little deeper to help out Rice and Phillips, or even potentially a change of system.

Bench depth

This is probably England’s biggest strength. Get this: The full backs from Chelsea’s Champions League-winning team, Reece James and Ben Chilwell, have played one game between them at Euro 2020.

The two players England coach Gareth Southgate was able to bring on at the start of extra time against Denmark in the semifinals were Jordan Henderson, the Champions League and Premier League-winning captain of Liverpool, and Phil Foden, widely regarded as the future star of English soccer. Among the unused subs were Manchester United forwards Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, a player who has just been signed for $100 million from Borussia Dortmund.

England probably has had the most attacking depth of all teams in the tournament along with France, which could be crucial if the final goes to extra time.

Italy’s squad isn’t quite so stacked with high-profile names, especially up front, but has midfielder Manuel Locatelli — one of the best players in the group stage — and some reliable defenders in reserve.

Coaches’ calls

One is a Premier League-winning manager with experience of coaching in three other countries and a number of Europe’s top clubs. The other’s only stint in club management lasted three years and saw him get relegated.

Euro 2020 is showing, however, that Southgate’s abilities should not necessarily be regarded as inferior to Roberto Mancini’s — at international level, anyway. Southgate has had a set approach this tournament, modelled on the pragmatic way France won the World Cup in 2018, where system and structure has trumped the temptation of bowing to an individual player, however high-profile or talented they are.

Almost every call Southgate has made has proved to be the right one. When it comes to the biggest game of his coaching career, can he still make the right call? There are fewer doubts about Mancini, Italy’s king of cool on the sidelines.