Sport & Fitness

Fixture Italy vs Ukraine, June 30, 8pm.
Venue St Peter’s Italian Church Social Club, 136 Clerkenwell Road, EC1
(020 7837 1528).
Population (home) 58 million.
Population (London) 40,000-50,000.
Stereotype Passionate, sentimental.
Stereotype (football) Passionate, unsentimental.
Food Have a guess.
Drink Peroni lager.

Up the Clerkenwell Road and away from the hysteria of Bar Italia lies St Peter’s Italian Church. Built in 1863 to service the spiritual needs of London’s small but expanding Italian population, it subsequently become the hub of a thriving community. Many of those watching Italy’s quarter-final tonight seem to have relied upon this redoubtable institution for all of their lives’ significant hatches, matches and dispatches. Feature continues

Next door to the church is a lively social club and tonight the faithful have come to worship at the altar of catenaccio. It’s immediately apparent that watching England can seriously warp your perspective on the World Cup. For some countries, simply being there is enough. But even for the likes of Italy, who are entitled to a certain level of expectation and corresponding levels of disappointment, a certain amiable fatalism seems to be the order of the day.

Initially we wander into a crêche and find young families hanging out and doing what young families do. A World Cup quarter-final is gradually burbling into peripheral existence on the screen behind them. Upstairs, things are more intense. But not much more. As ‘Forza Italia’ rings out, the barman ratchets up the volume on the TV by a few notches. He then ratchets it down again fairly swiftly when he realises that no one among this young, urbane and delightfully relaxed crowd has any intention of interrupting their young, urbane and delightfully relaxed conversations in order to stand up and sing along. Italy score almost immediately and after a brief burst of elation, the tension levels diminish still further. Just before half-time, there’s a momentary flurry of excitement when a replay of Italy’s goal leads half the crowd to believe that they’ve scored again. If you haven’t been hanging neurotically on every moment, it’s an easy mistake to make. It’s time to head for the lounge bar.