Italy and Austria faced off at Wembley in the round of 16 at EURO 2020 at Wembley on Saturday night – Italy had been one of the most impressive sides at EURO 2020 so far, winning all three of their matches in Group A without conceding a goal, while Austria finished second in Group E with wins over Ukraine and North Macedonia. Italy manager Roberto Mancini had opted to rest and rotate the majority of his XI for their last group game against Wales, and those players were now restored to the lineup, with Marco Verratti taking Manuel Locatelli’s place in the first-choice setup. Franco Foda put out the same side as for the last group game for Austria, with David Alaba at left-back. Italy began strongly, dominating possession as expected, but Austria were equal to the task, making it difficult for Italy to progress easily up the pitch like they did earlier in the tournament. Nicolo Barella had the game’s first shot on target with a sharp effort that was straight at Daniel Bachmann, and just past the half-hour mark, Ciro Immobile turned and send a wonderful dipping shot from distance onto the post and out, with Bachmann left watching and praying. Austria managed to go in level at half-time, and the second half was a different story, as they asserted themselves and began to force mistakes from Italy. They thought the lead was theirs when Marko Arnautovic headed a superb Alaba cross in off the bar, but the former West Ham forward was offside. Austria kept pushing, but neither side was unable to find the breakthrough, and so we went to extra time. Mancini’s substitutions late in normal time changed the game in the first half of extra time itself, with Federico Chiesa scoring a fantastic goal and Matteo Pessina making sure of Italy’s progress a few minutes later to crush Austrian hopes. Italy march on to the quarter-finals, where they await either Belgium or Portugal, and Austria depart with their heads held high and reputations enhanced. Check out our EURO 2020 analytics report which has all the key statistics, data and visualisations from this match.
