Italy defeated Spain 4-2 on penalties to secure a place in the Euro 2020 Final after being held to a 1-1 draw after extra time at Wembley Stadium, London.
A scrappy first half saw both teams trade chances with Dani Olmo producing the best chance for Spain as his 25th minute effort was punched away by by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Italy however took the lead on the hour mark as Federico Chiesa fired in from a loose clearance made by Aymeric Laporte.
Alvaro Morata started the match on the bench but came on and managed to snatch an equaliser in the 80th minute, firing in from an one-two move into the box with Dani Olmo to take the match to extra time.
Morata and Marcos Llorente saw chances denied for Luis Enrique’s La Roja before Domenico Berardi saw a 110th minute strike ruled offside for Italy, as both teams failed to find a winner with the match eventually going to penalties.
Misses from Olmo and Morata proved costly as Jorginho delivered the winning penalty to send Italy through to the Euro 2020 Final, where England or Denmark await on Sunday 11 July.
In a cagey opening ten minutes, Emerson burst up the left in the four minute to curl across a low swung cross towards Nicolo Barella, with the Inter Milan midfielder dragging the ball wide before lobbing his shot towards the top right corner only for it to strike the post and be fired clear away from goal.
Spain’s first proper chance came nine minutes later as Pedri shifted Sergio Busquets’ pass through to Mikel Oyarzabal who fumbled his footing after getting an initial touch, enabling the ball to be safely cleared.
Ferran Torres and Dani Olmo then saw shots go wide before Emerson again caused issues in the 21st minute, as he found Ciro Immobile who failed to quickly create a gap to shoot in turn teeing up Barella who also failed to create a proper shot as the ball was cleared.
Olmo then saw two chances for Spain go begging as his 25th minute effort was punched away by Donnarumma, before his strike eight minutes later flew over the bar prior to Oyarzabal putting Jordi Alba’s pass in the 39th minute in the final decent chance of a scrappy conclusion to the first half.
Four minutes into the second half, Ciro Immobile broke up the pitch but he could only fire wide across goal as Aymeric Laporte hauled him to ground.
Busquets and Oyarzabal then saw chances go begging as the Barcelona midfielder fired Oyarzabal’s 52nd minute lay-off over the bar, before Oyarzabal six minutes later saw a shot saved.
Italy however would punish Spain’s errors as they broke forward two minutes later on the counter-attack with Marco Verratti’s pass blocked by Laporte, only as far as Chiesa who pounced on the ball and cut in to curl into the bottom right corner to put Roberto Mancini’s Azzurri in front.
Oyarzabal missed an easy equaliser five minutes later as he headed Koke’s short cross wide of the right corner from just yards out of goal, before teeing up Olmo two minutes later to fire wide.
Spain’s pressure eventually paid off in the 80th minute as they attacked from Unai Simon’s save of Berardi’s shot, with substitute – Morata playing one-two with Olmo into box to roll his shot into bottom left corner.
Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini two minutes later almost conceded an own goal as he headed Olmo’s corner behind, luckily managing to knock the ball towards the left side as it initially looked set to fly towards the top left corner.
Busquets then wasted a huge opportunity to seal a comeback Spanish victory as he rifled Morata’s pullback from the right over the bar, as Spain were ultimately forced to endure extra time for a third consecutive match.
Spain went on to assert their dominance in the first half extra time despite Morata and Marcos Llorente seeing shots blocked, before Italy created some chances of their own in the second half with Berardi seeing a 110th minute goal disallowed from a direct overhead cross up the left into the box.
Spain thereafter tried to create more opportunities with their stronger energy in attack yet couldn’t force a breakthrough as Italy clung on for penalties.
Manuel Locatelli was first up for Italy but saw his shot blocked by Simon correctly diving to his right with Olmo then firing over for Spain.
Andrea Belotti, Gerard Moreno, Leonardo Bonucci, Thiago Alcantara and Federico Bernardeschi all scored their spot kicks to leave Italy leading 3-2 when Morata stepped up, yet the Spaniard could only softly fire his shot towards the right corner as Donnarumma dived correctly to block.
Jorginho consequently stepped up and fired in the winning spot-kick for Italy to seal a 4-2 victory on penalties.
Stat Attack
- Italy have now won five of their six semi-final appearances at the Euros but they failed to go on to become champions at Euro 2000 which was the only previous occasion when they needed penalties at the semi-finals stage in this competition.
- Both of Italy’s two conceded goals at Euro 2020 have taken place at Wembley Stadium, having also conceded here against Austria in the Round of 16.
- Spain have netted 13 goals in their six matches at Euro 2020, representing their highest goal tally in a single Euro tournament.
Teams
Italy: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giovanni DI Lorenzo, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Emerson (Toloi 74′), Nicolo Barella (Locatelli 85′), Jorginho, Marco Verratti (Pessina 74′), Federico Chiesa (Bernardeschi 107′), Ciro Immobile (Berardi 62′), Lorenzo Insigne (Belotti 85′)
Substitutes: Salvatore Sirigu (GK), Manuel Locatelli, Andrea Belotti, Domenico Berardi, Matteo Pessina, Francesco Acerbi, Bryan Cristante, Federico Bernardeschi, Alessandro Florenzi, Alessandro Bastoni, Rafael Toloi, Alex Meret (GK)
Spain: Unai Simon, Cesar Azpilicueta (M Llorente 85′), Eric Garcia (P Torres 109′), Aymeric Laporte, Jordi Alba, Koke (Rodri 70′), Sergio Busquets (Thiago 106′), Pedri, Ferran Torres (Morata 62′), Mikel Oyarzabal (Moreno 70′), Dani Olmo
Substitutes: David De Gea (GK), Diego Llorente, Pau Torres, Marcos Llorente, Alvaro Morata, Gerard Moreno, Thiago Alcantara, Robert Sanchez (GK), Jose Gaya, Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, Adama Traore
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