It's better to finish 2nd in the group when you consider this tournament bracket.
Spain finishing 1st in Group B will result in playing one of the 3rd placed teams in the R16, but most likely meeting Germany in the QF.
Italy finishing 2nd will result in a likely R16 meeting with Switzerland, and England in QF.
Croatia is going to come at us hard on the final matchday given they need 3 points. Spain already have 6 points - will they bend over for Albania?
Today's performance was a fucking shitshow. Why wasn't Di Lorenzo given a chin check and subbed off, how did he last the full 90? Is Spalletti afraid to go against his old Napoli boys?
On England - it's like they are 20 years behind tactically. In the modern game, football is won and lost in the midfield. Now look at England's midfield. Declan Rice is a player who benefits massively from the players around him (Odegaard and Jorginho). Trent starting in midfield when he has never played there for Liverpool is 100% on Southgate.
It's such a coping mechanism for the British to say "to get a squad this stacked playing like that is one hell of an achievement." This implies the players are good enough to win a tournament. They aren't. Yeah Southgate is cooked, but fuck me, the best players in the EPL aren't English!! Take away the foreign talent and you are left with Bellingham, Kane, and maybe Saka. Foden is a system player who is useless outside of a stacked Man City. Now even if they had all the talent in the world, the aforementioned tactical issues mean they would just be another Belgium/Portugal loaded with individual talent but no team. No squad. No group. No belief. They keep going up 1-0 (Euro 2020 final, WC Semi Final, etc.) then decide that's the time to sit back and start playing turgid football. Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth (Mike Tyson). What is most concerning is the blank looks on their faces. They have no idea what is happening, how it happened, and what to do next.