Italy Advance To EURO Final After Denying Spain
07 July, 2021
Italy advanced to the final of the European Championship after defeating Spain on penalties at Wembley Stadium.
EURO 2020 Semi-Final
Result: Italy 1-1 Spain (Italy won 4-2 on penalties)
Date: 06 July 2021
Venue: Wembley Stadium
The Azzurri made just one change from the win over Belgium as Emerson replaced Leonardo Spinazzola, who misses out after an Achilles injury while Daniel and Mikel Oyarzabal.
The Italians signalled their intent early on as Nicolo Barella collected a pass from Emerson before seeing his curling effort against the crossbar, although he was flagged offside.
Spain, meanwhile, had to wait until the midway point of the half for their first opening after Mikel Oyarzabal played in Daniel Olmo, who saw his effort turned away by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was end-to-end affair thereafter, with the Italians going closest to breaking the deadlock through Emerson striking the crossbar on the stroke of halftime after some good work by Lorenzo Insigne.
It was Roberto Mancini's men who found the breakthrough on 60 minutes against the run of play as Federico Chiesa showed great composure to fire into the top corner after a swift counter attack.
Luis Enrique responded by introducing Alvaro Morara for Ferran Torres while Mancini withdrew Ciro Immobile for Domenico Berardi for the remaining 30 minutes of regulation chance.
The game began to open even more as Olmo drilled a shot just wide of the mark before Unai Simon did well to deny Berardi at his near post a few minutes later.
Olmo would go on to play a role in Spain getting back on level terms as the RB Leipzig star slipped Morata through goal before the striker took one touch before firing past Donnarumma.
The clash eventually went to extra-time, where Spain took control of the encounter and were unlucky not to take the lead after some great defending by the Italians.
Extra-time ended with the scores still level pegging at 1-1, forcing the game to a shoot-out where Italy held their nerve to win 4-2 as Jorginho netted the winner after Morata's penalty was saved.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za