ÖAustria’s captain David Alaba sat alone and full of disappointment on the Wembley pitch, just a few meters away from him numerous Italian supporters celebrated their record team. Thanks to two Joker goals, Italy has struggled to continue its triumphal march through the European Football Championship. 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 in London. Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic (114th) could only shorten for Austria. “We won thanks to the players who came in with the right attitude and decided the game,” said Italy coach Roberto Mancini.
“I think this is not only the cruelest game of my career, but also in the entire history of Austrian football,” said Austria’s striker Kalajdzic. “Absolutely bitter and undeserved” was the defeat of his team, of which “every single Austrian could be proud”. “It’s really not easy to put into words at the moment,” said his team-mate Alaba.
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 in the 89th minute from former goalkeeper Dino Zoff, who had conceded a total of 1143 minutes between 1972 and 1974. In the quarter-finals next Friday in Munich, the Italians will now face Portugal or Belgium.
“That was the cruellest game”
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 a European Championship for the first time and fought bravely – but ultimately in vain. “I think this is not only the cruellest game of my career, but also in the entire history of Austrian football,” said Kalajdzic.
The Italians, who once again had to do without their captain Giorgio Chiellini, who was damaged on the thigh, initially 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 former Dortmund player 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.
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 preliminary 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.
Before just offside: Marko Arnautovic’s goal does not count.
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Image: AFP
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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