ITALY needed large doses of good luck on Tuesday night to reach the final of Euro 2020, beating Spain 4-2 on penalties at Wembley.
Spain dominated most of the semi-final tie against an uncharacteristically timid Italy side, Luis Enrique’s brilliant technicians running the show for most of the 120 minutes of action.
It was Italy who drew first blood though through Federico Chiesa before Alvaro Morata got the Spaniards level.
Chiesa, whose father Enrico is an ex-international, gave Italy the lead against the run of play, after Spain had failed to translate their dominance into goals.
After an entertaining but goalless first half, Juventus forward Chiesa struck for Italy on the hour mark, curling a superb shot into the top corner from inside the Spain box.
Spain stepped up their dominance after going behind as the Italians dropped deeper and defended their lead.
Luis Enrique’s side created very good chances to get back level, but Mikel Oyarzabal missed twice from close range, and the lively Dani Olmo also fluffed his lines in front of goal.
Morata replaced Ferran Torres in the 60th minute and equalised for Spain 20 minutes later, latching on to Olmo’s glorious pass before giving Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma the eyes to send him the wrong way.
The strike meant Juventus striker Morata has scored more goals at the European Championships (six) than any other Spain player, overtaking Fernando Torres’ five goals.
Spain did most of the probing in extra-time while the Italians played on the break, but there were no further goals and the game went into penalties.
Italy took the first kick of the shootout and missed through Manuel Locatelli but Spain missed through Olmo and Morata.
Chelsea midfielder Jorginho scored the winning penalty with aplomb to send Italy to their second final in three European Championship tournaments.
With the defeat, Spain have failed to progress from a semi-final of a major tournament (World Cup/Euros) for the first time in their history, having previously reached the final in each of their previous five semi-final appearances, according to Opta statistics.
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