Photo by Gordon Morrison

England 2 Italy 5 (Half Time 1-3)

After the disappointment of the game against Portugal we saw a great response from our players in this game.

England started the game very well defending man to man restricted pressuring the man with the ball which gave us lot of counter attacking opportunities. Italy didn’t change their zone defence system and we were in control of the ball and were rewarded when we took a 1-0 lead. We carried on playing well missing a few one on one opportunities with the goalkeeper, prior to some very bad refereeing decisions which helped Italy to 3-1 half time lead.

At half time I told the players that I wanted to see the same attitude in the second half and to play as a team, which we had done very well in the first half.

In the second half the team picked up their game again and performed very well in both defence and attack. The players showed great attitude and again dominated the game creating more good goal scoring opportunities.

Although the result shows us as losing the game by 3 goals, we didn’t actually deserve to this result and should have at least had a draw. This fact was recognised by most of the teams watching our game. It was very pleasing for the team that there was also a big crowd which was excited by the game and supported England. Normally the teams would go back to the hotel but we stayed to watch a very competitive game as Germany played Portugal after our game

In most of my reports I haven’t mentioned the referees as they do their best and making mistakes is part of the game. However I can’t accept that the referees are not consistent enough and it seems that there is a rule for one team and another for the other team. This point was been raised by other teams after our game. I hope that the CERH will do something to improve the level of refereeing.

Our next game tonight will be very hard as we face Spain in the Quarter-Finals.