Euro 2020 Semifinal Roundup: Chelsea’s two sons make the final

Previewing Italy versus England

If a Chelsea fan wanted to pick the two players that would be most interesting faced against each other, they’d be hard pressed to find a better pair than Mount and Jorginho. Not because of the nonsense Sarri/Lampard son stuff, but because they are pretty much the perfect players to go against one another.

In the one corner, you have one of Chelsea’s best pressers. Almost certainly Chelsea’s best player at finding pockets of space. He can turn on a dime and creates more chances than almost any of his teammates for club and country.

In the other corner, you’ve got one of Chelsea’s most press resistant players. He’s great at closing pockets of space before the opponent can find them. He’s also sneakily good at stopping chances before they can materialize.

Southgate would be incredibly smart to have Mount man mark Jorginho. Italy has shown that they can play around that with their win against Spain and England has shown that they’ll play around Mount more than through him. Even still, taking Jorginho out of the match as much as possible will go a long ways for England. Spain would likely have won possession regardless but the reason it was so lopsided has a lot to do with making Jorginho a nonfactor before the shootout.

The trick to this is Italy is likely okay with having to hit England on the break and down the flanks. England attacking down the flanks means they push bodies forward and leave more space behind there. Southgate does have Kyle Walker and Luke Shaw staying deeper than is popular these days but there is still going to be plenty of room to get at England if they have to be the team on the front foot. Denmark ran out of gas and lacked the quality to make it an issue for England, but they did show that England has a weak spot.

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