Spain will not be in the final on Sunday of the Eurocup. It will not be because this time, the penalties they smiled at him to Italy which is the first runner-up. An elimination that, we are not going to fool ourselves, a duel, but what we have to stay with is that Red is leaving the European Championship with its head very high and showing that it is a team with a great future. It will not be in this final, but in London, in the mythical stadium of Wembley, It was seen that this team has a great future ahead of it.
The staging of Spain surprised everyone because Luis Enrique
decided to leave on the bench Morata and Gerard Moreno to bet on the figure of the false nine represented in Oyarzabal and Olmo. The coach's bet came out wonderfully because La Roja completed a spectacular first quarter of an hour. With the ball in their possession, Italy did not leave their field. It is true that Barella he sent a ball to the post at the start of the game, but the action was invalidated by a clear offside that with the new VAR fashion, the assistant pointed it out when the play had already finished.
Leaving that action behind, Italy did not exist, subjected to a Spain in which Olmo and Pedri they were protagonists with a repertoire of passes and knowing how to move from manual. The goal did not come, although Oyarzabal circled it. Everything was calm for the Red, but everything changed after 20 minutes, when an error of Unai allowed Italy to generate a very clear opportunity that avoided Busquets when Barella had everything to score. That action took the fear out of his body in Italy and into Spain, which took a step back to protect itself from dangerous and fast Italian forwards. The match leveled a little more, but it was Olmo who had the best chance to score, but Donnarumma made an anthological stop to avoid the 0-1.
Spain tried to have control again, through possession, but Italy raised the pressure lines and Luis Enrique's men did not have it as easy as at the start of the game. Spain wanted the ball and Italy, run to stand as soon as possible against Unai. This was the final stretch of a first half that ended with a shot from Emerson to the crossbar, almost in the last play of the first act, which was reached without goals.
Italy brand
The second half started with the same script as the first half ended. Spain began sending and generating chances, but without specifying them. Italy, for its part, was still the same: defending well and looking for the counter to score. In that battle of styles, Italy succeeded in the 60th minute with a goal from Chiesa born of a counterattack.
Luis Enrique reacted by removing Ferran torres and putting Morata in search of the tie. La Roja went for all and Oyarzabal and Olmo they were around the goal against an Italy that was more Italy than ever, playing ‘catenaccio’ and trusting the counter to sentence. Luis Enrique gave entrance to Gerard Moreno and put Rodri to play with double pivot to have more control over the Italian cons.
Morata ties and extra time
Spain went on and on looking for that long-awaited goal against an Italy that took advantage of any Hispanic error to generate danger. The minutes were falling without the Red found the tie. Until it appeared Morata in the 80th minute to make it 1-1 after a play between him and Dani Olmo. That goal was gasoline for the engine of the Red one that did not want the extension and looked for the second goal. He did not find it, neither did Italy, and Spain played its third overtime followed by this European Championship.
An extra time in which Spain proposed much more than Italy that was still behind and waiting for a Spanish ruling to have a chance. Opportunities that were for the Spanish who, however, failed to score and reached the first part of extra time with 1-1.
Thus, 15 minutes is what Spain and Italy had ahead of them to avoid going to the penalty shoot-out, which, given what was happening in the field, seemed like the Italian goal. A team, the transalpine that started the second half of extra time better and even scored, but they disallowed the goal to Berardi for a clear offside.
Everything on penalties
Little or nothing happened in the second part of extra time and the first finalist of the Eurocup was going to be decided in the penalty shoot-out. A batch that started with Unai Simon stopping the launch of Locatelli and with Dani Olmo sending out yours.
Belotti did not fail for Italy and neither Gerard Moreno for Spain. Some successes that continued Bonucci and Thiago to leave everything tied. Bernardeschi overtook Italy, Morata failed and it all depended on Jorginho that did not fail and gave Italy the pass to the final of the Eurocup.
Italy, 1
Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bonucci, Chiellini, Emerson (Tolói, d. 74); Barella (Locatelli, m. 85), Jorginho, Verratti (Pessina, m. 73); Chiesa (Bernardeschi, m. 107), Immobile (Berardi, m. 61), Insigne (Belotti, m. 85).
Spain, 1
Unai Simon; Azpilicueta (Marcos Llorente, m. 85), Laporte, Eric García (Pau Torres, m. 109), Jordi Alba; Busquets (Thiago, m. 106), Koke (Rodri, m. 70), Pedri; Dani Olmo, Ferran Torres (Morata, m. 62) and Oyarzabal (Gerard Moreno, m. 70).
Goals: 1-0, Chiesa (m. 60); 1-1, Morata (m. 80)
Penalties: Belotti, Bonucci, Bernardeschi and Jorginho scored for Italy and Locatelli failed
For Spain, Gerard Moreno, Thiago scored and Dani Olmo and Morata failed
Referee: Felix Brych (Germany). Yellow to Busquets (m. 51), Tolói (m. 97), Bonucci (m. 118)
Stadium: Wembley. 58,000 viewers