UEFA Euro 2020 Finals Match Between Italy and England

Overview

UEFA Euro 2020 Finals Match Between Italy and England refers to the championship match of the UEFA European football tournament between Italy and England. The match itself had a lot of anticipation, hype and memes going into it, as well as during it and coming out of it. This was partly due to the pressure on the English who hadn't won a UEFA championship in over 50 years, as well as minor controversies surround the team leading up to the game. Italy would go on to win the match with a score of three to two after extended time ran out and a penalty kick shootout commenced.

Background

The match, which was played on July 11th, 2021, had the two contenders matched up since July 7th when England won against Denmark to claim the finals spot opposite Italy. Much of the discussion claimed that England was desperate for this win, as this was their first time in the UEFA Euro Cup finals in 55 years, whereas Italy had been in the finals multiple times since 2000. However, despite being featured in two different finals previously, Italy had yet to win it again since the 1960s. With England's win over Denmark, the chants of "it's coming home" were starting, as seen by the tweet made by Twitter^[1] user @TomUKlive on July 7th, 2021 (shown below).

The phrase "it's coming home" is said by fans of the English team because of the song "Three Lions" by Lightning Seeds, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, which was part of the anthem for UEFA Euro 1996, and was played during England's victories during the World Cup in 2018. The song, uploaded to YouTube on October 2nd, 2012, by the LightningSeedsVEVO channel, has attained 36 million views in nine years (shown below).

We still believe, we still believe
We still believe, we still believe
It's coming home, it's coming home
It's coming, Football's coming home
It's coming home, it's coming home
It's coming, Football's coming home again

Also leading into the match was an ongoing controversy and investigation done by UEFA, as it was alledged that England fans had shone a laser pointer or other type of light at the Danish goalie during the penalty kick shootout that was eventually won by England prior to the final. This was reported on by the Twitter^[2] account @TomWarren on July 8th, 2021. The tweet (shown below) also mentions several other infractions and causes for controversy committed by the English players and fans, such as booing the national anthem of rival countries.

Online Reaction

Before the game started, England found itself at the receiving end of much online hate. This hate came from the previously mentioned controversial actions of the fans, but also the spamming of "it's coming home" by British users, which turned it into a forced meme and annoyance to people not in on the joke. All of this was consolidated in the meme posted to the subreddit /r/memes^[3] by Redditor alexander_the_dead on July 12th, 2021, that gained 40,000 upvotes in one day (shown below).

While the general sentiment amongst many non-English fans was a decade-later continuation of Anyone But England, the English fans were very quickly making "it's coming home" spread around as much as possible, as seen in the meme by Redditor Slav_111 posted to the /r/starterpacks^[4] subreddit on July 11th, 2021, earning 560 upvotes in two days (shown below).

Related Memes

With Britain's loss to Italy, the users who were rooting against them were emboldened, and memes about the loss quickly started to spread. The two most notable memes to come from the match were "It's Coming Rome" and Chiellini Pulling Saka. "It's coming Rome" is just an Italian revamp of the English version, purposely done to take the phrase and turn it against the English. This phrase was tweeted^[5] out by the Captain of the Italian team, and the aggressor in the Chiellini Pulling Saka meme, Giorgio Chiellini, on July 11th, 2021, earning 190,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Chiellini Pulling Saka

Chiellini Pulling Saka to the foul action committed by Italian professional footballer and captain of Italy's national team Giorgio Chiellini as he's pulling England's Bukayo Saka's shirt in the final match of the UEFA Euro Championship 2020. The action quickly inspired a series of photoshop edits and exploitables, particularly about Italy's victory over the English team.

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References