Saturday night, the three goals of the meeting were scored during extra time. Second team qualified for the quarter-finals after Denmark, Squadra Azzura will play against the winner of Belgium-Portugal.
Italy, with a record unbeaten streak, defeated Austria in extra time (2-1 ap) on Saturday in the round of 16 of the Euro, snatching its ticket for the quarterfinals in the same way as the astonishing Denmark, which disgusted Wales (4-0).
The knockout phase has only just begun but the dramaturgy of these choppy matches is already operating: it took long minutes of tension at Wembley Stadium, in London, to see the Italians finally find the fault of the Austrian wall through Chiesa ( 95th) then Matteo Pessina (105th), despite the reduction in the score of Sasa Kalajdzic (114th).
And in Amsterdam, it only took two kicks from the Danish Kasper Dolberg (27th, 48th), usual replacement projected into the light, to propel Denmark into the quarterfinals, carried by an extra soul from the immense fear of the cardiac arrest of his midfielder Christian Eriksen in the middle of a match.
In short, the stage for the eighths is set before the rest of the program, with in particular a shock in Seville on Sunday evening (9 p.m.) between the Belgium of Romelu Lukaku and the Portugal of Cristiano Ronaldo, whose winner will challenge Italy in the quarters in Munich. . Denmark will go to Baku to face either the Netherlands or the Czech Republic, which face each other on Sunday (6 p.m.) in Budapest.
At Wembley, Italy has long been muzzled by the eye-catching Austrian defense: yet attractive in the hen phase, the “Nazionale” struggled to have the realism of some of its glorious predecessors, as when the sudden strike of Ciro Immobile s ‘is crushed on the post (32nd).
Uncomplicated as the match progressed, Austria could even have opened the scoring if the header of Marko Arnautovic (65th), entered with the help of the crossbar, had not been canceled for offside after consultation with the referee. video (VAR). Despite their technical superiority and a strong mastery of the ball, the Italians have only rarely put their Alpine neighbors out of position.
And in a tense end of the meeting, we saw the emergence of Italy, persevering and victorious. It was first of all Chiesa, son of the former international Enrico Chiesa, who delivered the “Nazionale” from a splendid sequence: control of the head, hook and strike with force (95th). Pessina then sent the Azzurri to the quarters (105th).
This forceps victory confirms the ability of coach Roberto Mancini to bring back to the highest level a collapsed selection after his non-qualification for the 2018 World Cup. And by the way, his “Nazionale” erased Italy’s unbeaten record that went back more than 80 years, with a 31st consecutive game without defeat.
If it was almost impossible for the Italians to make the trip to London due to travel restrictions linked to Covid, the large transalpine community of London had come en masse to Wembley to give the air of a home match to this eighth.
Between the hymn “Brothers of Italy” sung at the top of the lungs and the mild weather, although a little cooler than in Rome, not much could disorientate a Squadra Azzurra presented as one of the great favorites of the competition after a brilliantly mastered first lap.
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