Italy broke the English hearts at the Wembley with a 3-2 win on penalties to win the Euro 2020 title at the Wembley on Monday. It’s a fairytale story as Italy had stormed back from the disappointment of missing out on qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to winning the European Championship in 2021. A story of resurrection like no another, scripted by Roberto Mancini as he kept the Italian soul of defence and added the attacking flair that has turned them into European beaters.
Domenico Berardi, Leonardo Bonucci and Federico Bernardeschi scored for Italy to eventually take them to victory. While Harry Kane and Harry Maguire gave England the perfect start, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed as England lost the shootout.
Andrea Belotti and Jorginho were the ones to miss for Italy.
Luke Shaw gave England the ideal start in the final as he scored the opener for the ‘home’ team at the 1 minute and 57 seconds mark to send the Wembley into frenzy.
It was a moment of poor defending from Italy as they left themselves wide open and failed to close down the English players. Harry Kane played Kieran Trippier on the right and since he was not closed down by the Italians, he had all the time in the world to pick the run of Luke Shaw on the far post and place an inch-perfect pass. Shaw gave it a striker’s finish with a sweet volley to boost England’s hopes of ending a 55-year wait for a major trophy.
Shaw’s goal was the fastest one scored at a Euro final and the third-fastest at Euro 2020.
However, after the goal England lost control of the possession and were slowly put on the back-burner by Italy. Italy held possession with themselves and England had to be resigned to defending astutely.
Even though Italy gained control of the midfield, they could not made a decisive move in the final third, where England held their shape and defended well. However, Federico Chiesa was a constant thorn in England’s side, breaking through and putting the England’s back five in trouble time and again.
Half time statistics showed that Italy had taken a total of six shots with just one of them being on target. However, England had just one shot, which was the goal.
Soon after the second half began, Roberto Mancini made a couple of changes with Bryan Cristante and Berardi coming in and instantly, it started working for the Azzurri.
Italy started overpowering England so much that Jordan Pickford had to pull off a brilliant save against Chiesa to keep England’s lead intact.
However, soon after that, Italy earned themselves a corner off which they found the equaliser. Berardi’s corner caused England trouble and even though Pickford made an initial save against Marco Verratti’s powerful header, Leonardo Bonucci was at the poacher’s position to poke the ball home.
By the 80th minute mark, such was Italy’s dominance that took 14 shots, five on target and hit the woodwork thrice.
Gareth Southgate brought in Bukayo Saka and Jordan Henderson but Italy maintained control over the proceedings.
Around the 82nd minute, Chiesa seemed to have twisted his ankle and even though he tried to continue, he had to be substituted in the 86th minute with Federico Bernardeschi.
Italy pushed but England held on as the game went into extra time.
In the 96th minute, Henderson did brilliant to release Raheem Sterling on the left of the box but Italy did well to thwart the danger.
It was a very even game for the rest of the first half of extra time, where both defences did not much to each other.
England showed far more teeth in the second half of extra time with Jack Grealish, Saka and Sterling combining very well. The introduction of Grealish on the field changed the picture for England completely.
But as none of the teams were able to break the deadlock, the match went into penalties, where Italy won.
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