'It's coming home - where?' Six things Italy fans had to say ahead of the Euro 2020 final
From historical reminders to culinary corrections, here's what Italian football fans have been saying as they gear up for the Euro 2020 final on Sunday.
Italian pre-match banter can appear overwhelmingly good-natured, especially to people from some other football-mad European countries.
Part of this apparent friendliness though may be down to the tendency of some Italian fans to 'gufare', or to praise opponents before a match in the hope of 'jinxing' them.
Still, Italian fans had a few points they wanted to make to England supporters before the two teams meet at Wembley on Sunday night.
Florence FC questioned which "home" football would be coming to, given that the city's famously rough calcio storico predates the more genteel modern game by several hundred years.
RE: Football Coming Home
Football: invented in England in 19th Century
Calcio Storico: invented in Florence 16th Century
🤷♂️ Home?#ItsComingHome #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/yT1U9XdmUG
— ACF Fiorentina English (@ACFFiorentinaEN) July 9, 2021
Some also pointed out that even England's red-and-white flag of St George's Cross originated nowhere other than... Genoa.
Gentle reminder:
Your flag 🏴
Is Italian 🇮🇹#EURO2020 #EuroFinal pic.twitter.com/sUlKcIiEOc
— Federico Gatti (@federicogatti) July 9, 2021
Meanwhile others are less concerned with the score and more with the health of Italy's popular 79-year-old president, Sergio Mattarella, who is expected to join the Italian contingent in Wembley on Sunday night.
With new cases of the Covid Delta variant in the UK climbing into the thousands, the hashtag "President stay at home" began trending on Twitter.
Bloccate Sergio#PresidenteRestiACasa pic.twitter.com/DiRU54TWcm
— Gino Lamorte (@ginolamorte) July 8, 2021
After all, Italy is supposed to keep church and state separate (Chiesa, "Church", being the surname of one of the Azzurri's wingers).
https://twitter.com/r0b1nvd/status/1413144687553105948?s=20
And former England striker Gary Lineker failed to impress Italian Twitter when he posted a photo of his culinary tribute to Italy on Saturday.
https://twitter.com/footballitalia/status/1413922280565088256
And no doubt Italian fans will have a few more food-related messages for the English before the tournament is over.
https://twitter.com/Pietro_Panarisi/status/1413404820665475072
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Italian pre-match banter can appear overwhelmingly good-natured, especially to people from some other football-mad European countries.
Part of this apparent friendliness though may be down to the tendency of some Italian fans to 'gufare', or to praise opponents before a match in the hope of 'jinxing' them.
Still, Italian fans had a few points they wanted to make to England supporters before the two teams meet at Wembley on Sunday night.
Florence FC questioned which "home" football would be coming to, given that the city's famously rough calcio storico predates the more genteel modern game by several hundred years.
RE: Football Coming Home
— ACF Fiorentina English (@ACFFiorentinaEN) July 9, 2021
Football: invented in England in 19th Century
Calcio Storico: invented in Florence 16th Century
🤷♂️ Home?#ItsComingHome #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/yT1U9XdmUG
Some also pointed out that even England's red-and-white flag of St George's Cross originated nowhere other than... Genoa.
Gentle reminder:
— Federico Gatti (@federicogatti) July 9, 2021
Your flag 🏴
Is Italian 🇮🇹#EURO2020 #EuroFinal pic.twitter.com/sUlKcIiEOc
Meanwhile others are less concerned with the score and more with the health of Italy's popular 79-year-old president, Sergio Mattarella, who is expected to join the Italian contingent in Wembley on Sunday night.
With new cases of the Covid Delta variant in the UK climbing into the thousands, the hashtag "President stay at home" began trending on Twitter.
Bloccate Sergio#PresidenteRestiACasa pic.twitter.com/DiRU54TWcm
— Gino Lamorte (@ginolamorte) July 8, 2021
After all, Italy is supposed to keep church and state separate (Chiesa, "Church", being the surname of one of the Azzurri's wingers).
https://twitter.com/r0b1nvd/status/1413144687553105948?s=20
And former England striker Gary Lineker failed to impress Italian Twitter when he posted a photo of his culinary tribute to Italy on Saturday.
https://twitter.com/footballitalia/status/1413922280565088256
And no doubt Italian fans will have a few more food-related messages for the English before the tournament is over.
https://twitter.com/Pietro_Panarisi/status/1413404820665475072
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