Thanks to two Joker goals, Italy’s record team continued its triumphant advance through the European Football Championship with great difficulty. With a 2: 1 (0: 0, 0: 0) after extra time in the round of 16 against Austria, the Squadra Azzurra made it into the round of the best eight teams and two bests. Substitutes Federico Chiesa (95th minute) and Matteo Pessina (105th) scored the goals for Italy in front of 18,910 spectators at London’s Wembley Stadium. Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic (114th) could only shorten for Austria.
As the first Italian team ever, coach Roberto Mancini’s team has been undefeated in 31 games. In addition, it surpassed the previous Italian record of ex-goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who had conceded a total of 1143 minutes between 1972 and 1974, in the 89th minute. In the quarter-finals next Friday in Munich, the Italians will now face Portugal or Belgium.
For the Austrians trained by German coach Franco Foda, the tournament ends prematurely. The team led by captain David Alaba had qualified for the knockout round of an EM for the first time and fought back bravely – but ultimately in vain.
The Italians, who again had to do without their captain Giorgio Chiellini, who was injured on the thigh, initially seamlessly continued the strong performances from the preliminary round. For the first time at this tournament, they had to forego the atmosphere that they had worn to three wins in the group stage in their home city of Rome. That didn’t seem to bother the protégés of national coach Mancini at first. However, the longer the game lasted, the more it got to be a tremendous match.
The first half clearly belonged to the Azzurri. Austria goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann blocked a low shot from midfielder Nicolo Barella with his foot (17th). For the ÖFB-Elf, which was initially very low, there was little relief in the first half apart from a far too high shot by Marko Arnautovic (20th). Ciro Immobile had two good chances to give Italy the lead. First the ex-Dortmund was still decisively disturbed by long-time Bayern professional Alaba (25th), then he hammered the ball from a good 20 meters on the left post (33rd). Spinazzola also failed to reward the 1968 European champions for their superiority with another attempt from the left two minutes before the break.
Italy distracted, Austria brave
And the Italians seemed to be increasingly preoccupied with their missed opportunities. After the break, their game seemed more disheveled, Austria, however, more and more courageous. First Alaba almost gave the outsider the lead with a free kick just over the gate (52nd). Then a header from Arnautovic flew from the lower edge of the crossbar into the net (65th). The former Bremer had just been sidelined at Alaba’s preparatory work – the hit was checked for a long time by the video assistant and ultimately did not count.
The four-time world champion only became a bit more dangerous again in the final phase of regular time. Substitute Manuel Locatelli (72nd) and Insigne (73rd) moved away.
In extra time, the Italians got off to a better start – and, unlike before, struck with the first real chance. Chiesa, who was only brought in by Mancini in the 84th minute, took a cross from Spinazzola at the second post and scored with a volley to make it 1-0. Shortly before the end of the first half of extra time, Pessina made the preliminary decision with the second Joker goal of the evening from a few meters. The substitute Kalajdzic made it exciting again with his goal after a corner, but ultimately Italy brought the victory over time.
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