In focus: Italy’s defensive duo Giorgio Chiellini (center) and Leonardo Bonucci (right) should stop Belgium’s offensive.
Photo: imago images / Csaba Domotor
The quarter-finals between Belgium and Italy have already made for one of the sayings of this EM. And with its captivating logic, it also stood for the image of both teams. Italy’s brain in midfield, Jorginho, whom his colleagues respectfully call “Professore”, had pronounced it. It was about Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku and Italy’s center-back duo. Jorginho, born in Brazil and in possession of an Italian passport since 2012, said: “I hope that Bonucci and Chiellini will win the duel – it’s two against one.”
This sentence also contained the news of Giorgio Chiellini’s healed thigh injury, just in time for the only one of the four quarter-finals in which two title candidates clash in terms of sound. Together with the 34-year-old Leonardo Bonucci, Chiellini, who is two years older than him, will once again form the most experienced defensive pair at this tournament in Munich this Friday evening. But what sounds typical of the picture, according to which the Squadra Azzurra is concerned with defensive and result football, has so far not been confirmed at this EM, but rather turned into the opposite. The team of coach Roberto Mancini is particularly noticeable with a refreshing offensive style.
Before the 3-0 win against the Swiss, who have agreed to meet the Spaniards for the first quarter-finals this Friday in St. Petersburg after winning penalties against world champions France, Italy had already convincingly defeated Turkey (3-0). The 1-0 win in the third group match against Wales with an almost completely rotated starting eleven was followed by a close second round against Austria (2-1 after extra time). Rather incidentally, two age-old defensive records of the Azzurri from the 1930s and 1970s were broken. The older of them (31 games without defeat) could now be expanded against Belgium. The other record (1168 minutes without conceding a goal) was stopped by Austria’s striker Sasa Kalajdzic from VfB Stuttgart. But captain Chiellini is now back to unite Italy’s old with the new strength, i.e. the stable defensive with the energetic offensive.
Of all the teams, Italy has so far shot the most frequently on goal at this European Championship: 87 times in four games. “You play incredible football,” even said Belgium’s Dries Mertens with appreciation. The attacker has played in Italy’s Serie A for SSC Napoli since 2013 and added: “Italy is a team that amazed everyone at the tournament.” His national team colleague Thorgan Hazard from Borussia Dortmund described the performance of the upcoming opponent as “impressive”.
That sort of thing was expected from Belgium before the tournament. Also because of exceptional players like Lukaku, since 2019 with Inter Milan, Kevin De Bruyne and Thorgan Hazard’s brother Eden. De Bruyne and Eden Hazard, however, went out of the round of 16 against European champions Portugal (1-0), only practiced individually and were also absent from coach Roberto Martínez’s team on Thursday. However, the Belgians were far from an inspiring offensive style like in Italy, even with their outstanding kickers. Despite their eight tournament goals, with which they achieved the fourth best return behind Spain (eleven), Italy and Denmark (nine each). As far as the shots on goal are concerned, Belgium has 38 of all quarter-finalists but the second fewest after England with 27. And it is telling that Dortmund’s rather coarse right-back Thomas Meunier has so far been one of the most conspicuous players in his national team. In any case, thrilling is different, on the other hand it speaks for the quality of the cool efficiency with which the Red Devils came to their four European Championship victories.
It seems as if that result football is their role model, which was once considered a core competence of the Italians. So it is an appointment with the opposite sign. With their style, Belgians and Italians have also swapped roles. Belgium’s golden generation has always failed as an offensive secret favorite at previous tournaments, now the result football should finally lead to a title at their last chance. Behind Italy, which was still world champion in 2006, there are years of decline. At the 2010 and 2014 World Championships, they were eliminated after the group stage, and Italy even missed participation in 2018. At the EM 2016 it was enough for the quarter-finals. At this European Championship, Mancini’s team has now developed from an outsider to a secret favorite. “Professore” Jorginho knows how to get a title as such. With Chelsea, he won the Champions League final against Manchester City and De Bruyne at the end of May.
.
