From the top of my head Germany, Spain, France, Croatia, Belgium have clearly better starting 11s. Italy's squad was in the ball park of England and Portugal which is disgusting by Italian standards.
Didnt help that they had the toughest path to the final or they could have gone all the way.
Thats not from the top of ones head, thats all the teams that are superior to Italy on paper (Spain, Germany, France) and then some that are on par at best (Italy had a WC defense and GK, Croatia a WC midfield and Belgium a WC attack), however these 2 teams are know as chokers throughout the years so there is no reason not to believe Italy would have been favorites in an elimination game against either of them.
About the path to the final, well you can thank Eder for that, as hes the one that scored vs Sweden. And Conte, for subbing in Zaza
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From what i have seen from Allegri and the way he find solutions... i would really not be surprised if he reached the final with that very same team but using a formation thinkered by him. Allegri is superior to Cnote tactically. Thats a no question
Just look at the roster Conte called up (which wasnt the best available at the moment either), its obvious he was planning to go with a 3421 or 433 from the names he had, probably chickened out last minute and went with the 352. Considering the midfield he had, not the best solution as seen vs Germany when he played a btb mid in Parolo at regista and had to start Sturaro
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Pls, Portugal didnt play it smart at the group stage, they just had a shit start. Italy bested Belgium and Spain, two clearly superior squads on paper and was on the brink of eliminating Germany, another team with better players, of course Conte made that team better than they were
I didnt say Portugal planned it, maybe my last sentence implied that but i didnt mean to say that. They simply got lucky, thats all. I do however say that Italy should have done it. The win vs Belgium was excellent, as now they only needed 2 draws (most likely even one would be enough) to quality and put Belgium in a situation where they need 2 wins, or they would risk finishing below one of the remaining teams. But hey, lets win vs Sweden after playing crap all game and having the result that was perfect for us.
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there are so many badasses in our team, Mario, Giorgio, Bonucci, and he picks Dybala hahahahahahhhhahhh
