The Italians won in front of 60,000 spectators on Tuesday evening (07/06/21) in Wembley Stadium 5-3 after penalties – it was a nerve-racking thriller in which the Spaniards didn’t end up cool were enough. The previously very good Dani Olmo shot well over the goal, the ultimately decisive miss was made Álvaro Morata.
Spain Coach Luis Enrique was ultimately only allowed to claim for himself, with his starting eleven the colleague Roberto Mancini to have surprised. It was still to be expected that Leipzig’s Olmo would play for the injured Pablo Sarabia in attack. For the first time in this tournament, however, Luis Enrique did without his regular center forward Morata, but brought him not Gerard Moreno, but Mikel Oyarzabal.
Unusual technical glitch
The surprise almost quickly had its effect. After a stormy start for the Italians, Spain stabilized after a good ten minutes and got the great opportunity to take the lead. Oyarzabal had a brilliant pass from 18-year-old tournament discovery Pedri in the back of Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci sneaked away, but could not bring the ball under control in the best position.
The Italians got their early chance too. After a somewhat wild excursion by goalkeeper Unai Simón and the capture of the ball by Ciro Immobile hesitated Nicoló Barella but too long with the conclusion. For Immobile, the assist would have been a good opportunity to write sporty headlines again after his lousy acting performance in the quarter-final victory over Belgium had made him an attraction in the social networks.
Olmo calls for Donnarumma
As with two tactical geniuses like Mancini and Luis Enrique could not be expected otherwise, these goal scenes were exceptional situations. Olmo still had a decent opportunity in the 24th minute, but Donnarumma dived into the left corner and defused the ball. Otherwise, both teams watched each other, looked for the gaps with a fast, sometimes surprisingly risky passing game, but both rows of defenses including the clearers before did an excellent job .
Only seconds before the half-time whistle from the very attentive and pleasantly generous referee Felix Brych did the Italians break through again, but Emerson’s shot only grazed the crossbar of the Spanish goal from an acute angle.
Return to “old Italy”
In the second round, Spain became much more dominant. The Italians increasingly moved away from their active and refreshing style of play, which had made them a top favorite over the course of this tournament, coupled with their usual defensive quality. Perhaps this return to the “old” Italian style of play also contributed to making the Spaniards a little too carefree. And after an hour, their counter-protection failed with serious consequences.
Jordi Alba got the pass to Immobile under control with a tackle, but the ball hit uncontrollably Federico ChiesaMancini had already flirted with the replacement. Eric García Chiesa attacked too late and too half-heartedly, who slipped the ball into the right corner with his first ingenious action of the evening inaccessible to Unai Simón.
Oyarzabal missed the equalizer
Five minutes later, Luis Enrique’s coup with Oyarzabal almost paid off after all. But the Real Sociedad goalgetter missed his header chance after a great lob from Koke. The Spanish coach pulled his hair outside. Maybe he already knew then that he was so close to the big one with his surprise starting XI coup was – but with these chances it was more like that Coolness from Morata or Gerard Moreno.
Luis Enrique’s luck: he still had time to change something. Morata came on shortly after falling behind, Gerard Moreno followed 20 minutes before the end for the unlucky fellow Oyarzabal.
Morata shows it to the “fans”
The courage to take full risks paid off. Ten minutes before the end, Morata attacked, played one-two with Olmo, loaded Donnarumma with a wonderful fake shot and pushed the ball into the near corner. Morata, of all people – many Spanish fans had previously targeted him badly on the Internet, and there were even death threats against him and his family.
In extra time, both teams watched each other again, avoiding mistakes was the trump card, and no one voluntarily took risks anymore. There was no big chance in either half, it looked like both Italy and Spain wanted it Showdown on penalties. From the perspective of the Spaniards, that wasn’t a good decision in the end.