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Bizarre! England line out 100,000-signature petition seeking Italy vs England Euro 2020 final replay

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Italy beat England on penalties in the final at Wembley on Sunday, but many England supporters have – somewhat hopefully – called for the match to be replayed

According to UK publication, Mirror, over 100,000 people have signed a change.org petition bizarrely calling for England’s Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy to be replayed.

The Three Lions lost on penalties after after a 1-1 draw at Wembley on Sunday night where Luke Shaw raised English hopes by giving them the lead inside two minutes.

The Italians forced their way back into the match and deservedly levelled through Leonardo Bonucci in the second period.

Roberto Mancini’s side then prevailed 3-2 in a penalty shootout as Marcus Rashford shot wide and both Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka had their efforts saved by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

England boss Gareth Southgate was keen to stress how proud he was of his team after the match.

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“In terms of the players, they’ve given everything they could have – not only tonight but through the whole tournament,” said Southgate.

“They should hold their heads high.

“They’re a team who have pulled together, given the country some incredible evenings but of course tonight the devastation of getting so close and not being able to give our country the trophy we wanted to is difficult to put into context.

“You can imagine how the dressing room is so that of course is difficult to put into words at the moment but in terms of the players they’ve given absolutely everything and I’m very proud of them.”

Southgate had no criticism for Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers after the match, but it seems as though many supporting England thought differently.

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In the UK, a peak audience of 31 million people watches the match across both BBC and ITV,  and some fans were left incensed

change.org petition to replay the match was started on the grounds that it apparently “was not fair at all”, with an image of Giorgio Chiellini’s now infamous foul on Saka – which the Italian defender was booked for – used to highlight this apparent unfairness.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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