European Championship 2024
Crushed to the point of an own goal: Strong Spaniards beat European champions Italy
Italy’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo (l) and Spain’s Nico Williams in a duel
© David Inderlied / DPA
The teams from Spain and Italy played a technically sophisticated game in Gelsenkirchen. In the end, the Spanish came out on top and were thus confirmed as group winners.
Spain ended up winning 1-0 against Italy. The match between Spain and Italy, which many football fans had been waiting for, lived up to expectations in terms of quality. The Spaniards put Italy under pressure early on. The game started at a fast pace in the first ten minutes. Italy initially tried counterattacks, while Spain relied on its wing play, creating four dangerous situations in front of the goal of the strong Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, by the middle of the first half.
Italy rarely managed to continue its build-up play beyond the halfway line in the first half. They only managed one shot on the Spanish goal. Then it was halftime.
Technically high-class encounter between Spain and Italy
Even after the break, the Spanish pressing and intensive Italian defense continued. Italy also continued to rely on counterattacks. But Spain created good scoring opportunities time and again and came ever closer to scoring the first goal. And finally the bell rang: in the 55th minute, Italy’s Calafiori unluckily caught the ball in front of his own goal and steered it into the net. Spain were now 1-0 ahead.
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And they keep pressing. Again and again, Italy’s Donnarumma has balls flying around his ears, but as the best Italian player he is able to parry them. However, little is happening going forward, which is also a compliment to Spain’s early pressing defensive skills.
In the 73rd minute, Italy’s offense flared up when Pellegrini narrowly missed the Spanish goal with a free kick. Both teams turned things up a notch in the last ten minutes. In the 85th minute, Italy won the first corner kick and narrowly missed the equalizer.
Then, after four minutes of stoppage time, the game was over. The Spaniards deserved to celebrate. Italy could rely on their strong goalkeeper, but that was not enough for the reigning European champions.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated.