Italy vs Spain, one of the semi-finals at EURO 2020, was billed as the ‘final before the final’, and it did not disappoint, as we were treated to a fantastic display of football from both sides, with Italy eventually managing to make it to the final of the tournament after beating Spain in a penalty shootout. The match itself finished 1-1, and while it can be argued that Spain were the better side on the night, there is no denying that Italy have been one of the best teams at EURO 2020, and on that basis, definitely deserve to be lining up at Wembley on Sunday evening. Spain manager Luis Enrique made a surprise call by dropping Alvaro Morata and brining in Mikel Oyarzabal instead, with Dani Olmo also coming in to replace the injured Pablo Sarabia, while Roberto Martinez made just one change to the Italy lineup, as Emerson Palmieri replaced Leonardo Spinazzola, who unfortunately suffered a serious injury in the last game.
Spain began strongly, pressing Italy high up the pitch and forcing turnovers in possession, but as has been the case throughout EURO 2020, they did not have the finishing touch in front of goal. Italy, on the other hand, threatened sporadically on the counter-attack, with Ciro Immobile being a regular threat with his running in behind, and although the game was goalless at half-time, it had not been one short of quality. It was opened up in the second half when substitute Federico Chiesa scored with a brilliant finish to put Italy ahead, but Morata, coming off the bench, would redeem himself to some extent by netting the equalizer with 10 minutes to play. The game moved on to extra-time, where neither side was able to break the deadlock, and so it came down to penalties, with Unai Simon saving from Manuel Locatelli up first to wild cheers from the Spain contingent in the stadium. However, Dani Olmo blazed Spain’s first kick over the bar, and while the next two takers for both sides scored, Federico Bernardeschi put Italy 3-2 up, and it would be Morata who missed, giving Jorginho the chance to win it from the spot, and the Chelsea midfielder did so in his usual unruffled style. Check out our EURO 2020 analytics report from this match for the key statistics, data and visualisations.
