Vbefore the tournament highlight of the summit: the southern European classic Italy against Spain in the semifinals of this eventful European football championship in eleven countries. The four-time world champion and one-time European champion against the three-time European champion and one-time world champion.
Bella Italia, the heartbreaker of this tournament not even qualified for the World Cup finals in 2018, against the style-forming Spaniards who, after years of mediocrity, got better and better at this EM. The legendary London Wembley Stadium, where England and Denmark play the second finalists this Wednesday evening (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship, on ZDF and on MagentaTV), offered the classic resonance space for this football classic in front of almost 60,000 spectators – a Stage the masses as if there was no more pandemic.
At the place where the decision had to mature, there was enough space in the game eleven against eleven for two freshly built teams without a superstar to demonstrate the collective strength on both sides. The Spaniards were bigger, which was not adequately reflected after 90 and 120 minutes in the score of 1: 1 after goals from Chiesa (60th minute) and Morata (80th).
Italy misses Spinazzola
The penalty shoot-out had to decide. A matter of nerves. And Italy had the better nerve, winning this shootout 4-2. A miss by Locatelli was followed by four hits, the decisive one by Jorginho. Spain, on the other hand, made one miss too many with Olmo and Morata. The journey of the Italians continues. The grand finale will take place at the same place on Sunday. “We played against a powerful opponent. We suffered but we brought it home. We always believed in ourselves and won’t let ourselves be cornered, ”said winning goal scorer Jorginho.
Italy missed attacking left-back Spinazzola, who was thrown back on sick leave for six months with an Achilles tendon rupture in the 2-1 quarter-final victory over Belgium, who was replaced by Brazilian-born Emerson. Enrique swapped center-back Pau for Garcia, the ailing left winger Sarabia for Olmo, who attacked in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig, and center forward Morata for Oyarzabal.
The Squadra Azzurra, which was retrained by Mancini after decades of alert defense readiness to attack the leitmotif, bet, this time rather cautiously, in a 4-3-3 formation on the counterattack, the Furia Roja stayed at the familiar 4-3-3 with many elements that were over Years shaped the self-confident, determined combination flow of FC Barcelona.
No wonder, since Enrique grew up as a daring (national) player and a controversial coach in this club. After the first Italian alarm shot, which Barellà put against the post from offside, Spain took control of the game with long ball relays and surprised the Italians with an attack formation in which Olmo set many accents as a hanging tip and Oyarzabal attacked from outside like Ferran Torres.
.
