After the goals of substitutes Federico Chiesa and Matteo Pessina, nothing kept the Italians in their positions. Most of the national team ran across the pitch to the goal scorers and the fans celebrated a “Notte Magica”, as the magical nights in Italy are called, in the stands of the Wembley Stadium. Only Roberto Mancini, the Commissario Tecnico, preferred to linger in his coaching zone and cheer with the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma who had been called in, who in turn had to celebrate twice.
It was close, but the 2: 1 (2: 0; 0: 0) after extra time over Austria in the European Championship round of 16, Italy moves into the round of the eight best nations and meets either European champions Portugal or co-favorites Belgium on Friday in Munich . And the highly traded Donnarumma, 22, broke the age-old record of his compatriot Dino Zoff. Between 1972 and 1974 the goalkeeper “Dino Nazionale” remained unbeaten for 1143 minutes, his descendants now have 1168 minutes without conceding a goal.
Marko Arnautovic cries bitter tears
With now 31 undefeated international matches in a row, the dolce vita life of the Italians continues on the international football stage, while Austria missed reaching the quarter-finals for the first time after reaching the round of 16 for the first time. Marco Arnautovic, who was replaced after 97 minutes, wept bitter tears, his supposedly decisive goal (65th) was conceded again by the video assistant for being offside.
The next goal of Sasa Kalajdzic (114.), who came into play for him, came too late after the fresh forces of the Italians, Chiesa (95.) and Pessina (105.), had scored immediately before. After regular playing time it was 0-0, which only Donnarumma should have liked.
Trembling again: Italy’s goalscorer Federico Chiesa (left) celebrates with his teammates.
(Photo: Frank Augstein / AFP)
To celebrate the day, the Austrian media got their own people in the mood for the “Century Game” (Hitradio Ö3) with an enviable, easy-going attitude. The Alpine republic saw itself in the duel with its country neighbors as a blatant outsider. “Believe in the miracle,” was the headline of the mass newspaper Krone and the Courier did not long for a “Notte Magica”, but at least a “Notte Italiana”: an Italian night.
Hitradio Ö3, the third radio program on Austrian Broadcasting, couldn’t wait for the kick-off at 9 p.m. The station started its “Ö3 Super Saturday” at six o’clock in the morning. Breakfast was served with a report about national goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann, the “local hero in London”, as Ö3 called him, because Bachmann, 26, as the goalkeeper of Watford FC from the second-rate championship in the expired season of promotion to the Premier League succeeded.
At lunchtime, Hitradio then went on to the “football festival” for the rest of the day, which had a little delicacy ready for almost every taste. The Italo listeners got their money’s worth with Più bella cosa by the cuddle singer Eros Ramazotti – and the Austrians themselves were spoiled by the mad reporter Adi Niederkorn. As one of the few compatriots, he made the quarantine trip to London.
Half an hour before kick-off, Niederkorn said in his desk that he would see “not much red-white-red” at Wembley – except for “the red seats” in the English national stadium, which was poorly occupied with only 18,910 spectators. On the island, the game was hardly popular with the exception of the mention of the local referee Anthony Taylor; the Times didn’t even devote an article to the game in the twelve-page special “The Euros”.
Instead, the catchy tune “I am from Austria” by songwriter Rainhard Fendrich ran during Niederkorn’s live switch. Niederkorn thought that the country’s unofficial national anthem created at least a “bit of atmosphere” in the stadium. For this purpose, the director faded in the subtitles in the original accent on the video monitors, which actually meant that “the ice from the Sö” melted briefly, according to the verse, “like von am Gletscher in April”.
The crossbar helps with the bang from Ciro Immobile
Both Austrian football and the Austropop classic have come a long way before they were both able to perform together for the first time at the new Wembley. The last time Austria played a test match at the same location was 48 years ago, in 1973, the result against England: 7-0. It didn’t get that bad this time, that was already indicated after a minute when Arnautović picked up the yellow card for his rude entry. This clarified whether he had survived the aftermath of a delayed muscle injury in his thigh.
The team of coach Franco Foda held against it as best they could, so that not even the critical old international players (of which Austria has a few more to offer besides Herbert “Schneckerl” Prohaska, Toni Polster and Andreas Herzog) had to criticize in their television analyzes.
In midfield, the Italians Marco Verratti (Paris Saint-Germain) and Jorginho (Chelsea FC) dominated the game against the Austrian Bundesliga legionaries Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig), Florian Grillitsch (TSG Hoffenheim) and Xaver Schlager (VfL Wolfsburg), but they did It only got tight twice: Jorginho’s low shot (17th) parried ÖFB goalkeeper Bachmann with his foot, and the cross (32nd) helped center forward Ciro Immobile hit the ball.
As the playing time increased, the nervousness of the Italians before a serious defeat increased. In a muddled and uneventful game, Alaba stroked the ball at one of the few high points after a free kick on the goal roof (52nd) and shortly afterwards Arnautovic scored his denied goal – which “in the game of the century” would have become “the goal of the century” for Austria if he had because would have counted.
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