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Inside Wembley, Italy Won. Outside of It, England Lost.

Racism and vandalism have no room in sport, or anywhere.

Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
4 min readJul 16, 2021
Кирилл Венедиктов, CC BY-SA 3.0 GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons

The UEFA Euro 2020 (being played in 2021) was like no other. France, the pre-tournament favorite was eliminated by an underdog like Switzerland.

England, always a combination of stars, but hardly ever a star team, finally lived up to its potential. Italy, as they always do in major tournaments, came together as a team and went to the final to stake their claim for the honors.

England came tantalizingly close but lost in a way that is always excruciatingly painful for any sports team or fan — the penalty shootout, which is the closest a sporting competition gets to be a “lucky draw.”

England’s team manager and former star player Gareth Southgate made some bold decisions when deciding the shootout line-up. He thought he had made the right decisions based on preparation and form leading up to the moment of truth, but the result didn’t show it to be the best decision.

One of the big gambles he took was to hand Bukayo Saka, a 19-year-old rising football star to take a crucial final penalty kick. Saka missed, England lost.

Southgate had absolute stars who he could have picked instead — Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, and many others…

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Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi
Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Written by Pranshu "Maverick" Dwivedi

Stay-at-home-dad who "retired" from a 12-year career in finance at the age of 35. Curious thinker with an opinion on nearly everything and is here to share it.

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