Ben White is last Brighton man standing at 2020 European Championship
England are into the final of the 2020 European Championship with a Brighton player in their squad. Let us repeat that again as it still sounds utterly unbelievable – England are into the final of the 2020 European Championship with a Brighton player in their squad.
The Three Lions defeated Denmark 2-1 in extra time at Wembley to reach their first major international tournament final since 1966. 55 years of hurt could come to an end against Italy on Sunday night and if it does, you have to fear for the health and sanity of the country.
People celebrated the semi final win by clambering on moving buses amongst other fun pastimes. A video on Twitter meanwhile appeared to show Lewis Dunk shouting at a police officer after watching the game in a Brighton pub, probably telling said officer that he should have been on the bench at Wembley rather than Tyrone Mings.
Harry Kane scored the winner, converting a rebound after Kasper Schmeichel successfully kept out Kane’s initial penalty. For Brighton fans, Schmeichel saving seemed like a foregone conclusion as over the past decade we have seen him keep out spot kicks from Ashley Barnes in 2012, Glenn Murray in 2018 and Neal Maupay in 2020.
Denmark had taken the lead via a Mikkel Damsgaard free kick, the first time Jordan Pickford’s goal had been breached in the tournament. The Danes were ahead for only nine minutes though, man-of-the-moment Raheem Sterling forcing Simon Kjaer into turning a cross past Schmeichel for an own goal.
Whilst White may not have played a minute of football at Euro 2020 – and that seems unlikely to change on Sunday as he probably will not even make the bench – Southgate has been keen to praise the contributions of those not involved.
Speaking after the quarter final win over Ukraine, Southgate said: “I am spending more energy worrying about the three I have to leave out of the 26 because they are all good players, none of them deserve to be left out. They are all giving everything in training, so none of it is because I don’t think they are up to the level.”
Italy booked their place at Wembley by eliminating Spain, for whom Robert Sanchez was again an unused substitute. Sanchez’s call up for the 2020 European Championship was only the second time he had been summoned into his national squad and would he have felt right at home with Spain underperforming their xG and being rubbish at penalties.
Alvaro Morata was the guiltiest party in both those departments. He squandered countless opportunities throughout the tournament and missed in the shoot out against Italy, even after coming off the bench to score a late equaliser and take the game to extra time.
Federico Chiesa’s curling finish looked like it had decided a pulsating tie in Italy’s favour before Morata’s late intervention meant it finished Italy 1-1 Spain. Neither side could force a winner in the additional 30 minutes and so to penalties things went.
Unai Simon kept out Italy’s first penalty from Manuel Locatelli but they were otherwise spot on. Jorginho hit the winner after waiting for Simon to commit to picking a side before calmly slotting the ball into the opposite corner.
Dani Olmo blasted over for Spain before Mortata missed to present Jorginho with his chance of taking Italy into their fourth Euros final. They have won only one of those, as long ago as 1968.
The good news for Sanchez is that Simon was hardly a convincing figure in goal throughout the tournament. With David De Gea potentially down the pecking order at Manchester United, a strong start to the season for Sanchez could soon see him usurp both his rivals to become Spain’s number one.
That would cap quite a rise for a bloke who this time last year was Brighton’s fifth choice having just finished a pretty non-descript loan spell in League One with Rochdale.
Brighton interest in international tournaments does not finish on Sunday with the European Championship final, either. Alexis Mac Allister has jetted off to Tokyo where he is part of the Argentina squad for the Olympic Games, making history as the Albion’s first ever Olympian.
We really are a massive club these days.
