{"id":728,"date":"2021-07-12T01:29:26","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T01:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/?p=728"},"modified":"2021-07-12T01:29:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T01:29:26","slug":"italy-win-euro-2020-final-on-penalties-to-wreck-england-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/italy-win-euro-2020-final-on-penalties-to-wreck-england-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy win Euro 2020 final on penalties to wreck England party"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LONDON \u2014 Italy wrecked England’s Euro 2020 party at Wembley on Sunday, winning the final on penalties to plunge the host nation into despair and prolong their 55-year wait to win a major title.<\/p>\n

Roberto Mancini’s men recovered from the shock of conceding the quickest goal ever in a European Championship final to equalise and held their nerve to claim a 3-2 shootout victory.<\/p>\n

It is the second time Italy have been crowned European champions and comes after the embarrassment of failing even to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.<\/p>\n

“We did well,” Mancini told RAI Sport. “We conceded a goal straight away and struggled, but then we dominated the game.<\/p>\n

“The lads were wonderful, I don’t know what more to say. It’s important for all the people and all the fans. I hope they’re celebrating (in Italy).”<\/p>\n

The partisan crowd was whipped up to a state of fever pitch by rousing renditions of “Three Lions” and “Sweet Caroline” before kick-off.<\/p>\n

Both teams took the knee before the whistle in a display of solidarity against racial injustice before England raced out of the blocks.<\/p>\n

Gareth Southgate’s team were ahead in just the second minute when defender Luke Shaw finished coolly at the back post after an inviting cross from the recalled Kieran Trippier.<\/p>\n

The goal stunned a disbelieving crowd of more than 67,000, mostly decked out in red and white.<\/p>\n

In steady rain, the crowd provided a relentless wall of noise as the home side repelled Italy’s attacks and threatened to increase their lead.<\/p>\n

England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made a fine one-handed save from\u00a0Federico Chiesa’s effort to preserve his side’s advantage with about half an hour to go.<\/p>\n

\n
England\u2019s Bukayo Saka reacts after missing a penalty as Italy\u2019s players celebrate winning Europ 2020. AFP\/VNA Photo<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But minutes later they were level when\u00a0Leonardo Bonucci\u00a0scrambled the ball into the net from close range after England failed to clear.<\/p>\n

Italy were now dictating play and their supporters found their full voice behind the goal they were attacking.<\/p>\n

With four minutes remaining of normal time a pitch invader stopped the action and stewards struggled to catch him adding to a sense of chaos at the stadium after ticketless fans earlier forced their way in.<\/p>\n

Normal time finished goalless despite a flurry of substitutions and the sides were still locked at 1-1 after extra time.<\/p>\n

Pickford saved spot-kicks from\u00a0Andrea Belotti\u00a0and Jorginho but Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all failed to find the net.<\/p>\n

Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini lifted the trophy to the delight of the country’s fans as the small pocket of Italian fans celebrated wildly.<\/p>\n

Fan frenzy\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

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The atmosphere around the stadium was frenzied in the build-up to the match, which kicked off at 1900 GMT, with supporters draped in England colours downing pints of beer and chanting anthems.<\/p>\n

But as the start neared, the climate became tense, with thousands crammed into the pedestrianised Wembley Way, strewn with broken glass.<\/p>\n

Fans — with few signs of mask-wearing despite surging coronavirus infections in Britain — threw cans of beer, flares and traffic cones into the air.<\/p>\n

Footage posted on social media showed hundreds of supporters battling to get past lines of stewards and police, trying to force their way through security cordons and scaling walls.<\/p>\n

Another video appeared to show violent clashes between fans inside Wembley itself.<\/p>\n

Police said in a statement that a “breach of security… resulted in a small number of people getting into the stadium without a ticket” but the number appeared to swell the official crowd significantly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Italy had been arguably the team of the tournament heading into the final, sweeping through the group stage with a perfect record before knocking out Austria, top-ranked Belgium and Spain to reach the final.<\/p>\n

Revitalised since Mancini took over after their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the Azzurri were on a remarkable 33-match unbeaten run leading into the final.<\/p>\n

The four-time world champions’ lone previous European Championship triumph came in 1968. They were beaten finalists in 2000 and 2012.<\/p>\n

Southgate has revolutionised English football since taking charge in 2016, leading his team to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, where they were beaten by Croatia but they fell just short at Wembley.<\/p>\n

It means they are still waiting for their first major title since winning the 1966 World Cup on home soil.<\/p>\n

Southgate said it was his decision to put Arsenal teenager Saka as his team’s final penalty taker<\/p>\n

“I chose the takers,” Southgate told ITV. “I’m unbelievably disappointed not to go one step further.<\/p>\n

“We decided to make the changes at the end of the game, but we win or lose together as a team.”<\/p>\n

British authorities had warned of the dangers of large gatherings ahead of Sunday’s final, fearful of the highly transmissible Delta coronavirus variant that is firing outbreaks across the world.<\/p>\n

Health experts have expressed concerns about Euro 2020 events becoming super-spreaders throughout the tournament, especially in Britain and Russia. AFP<\/p>\n

Vietnamnews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Italy wrecked England’s Euro 2020 party at Wembley on Sunday, winning the final on penalties to plunge the host nation into despair and prolong their 55-year wait to win a major title. Roberto Mancini’s men recovered from the shock of conceding the quickest goal ever in a European Championship final to equalise and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azmotorbikes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}