Italy vs Spain
Italy advance to the final after defeating Spain 4-2 on penalties yesterday, July 6th, at Wembley Stadium in London. It was a closely fought game where Spain would have a shocking 71% possession.
Italy score first at the 60th minute with another special goal by Federico Chiesa. He would get the ball just inside the left corner of the box and froze Spanish keeper Unai Simón by curling the ball into the bottom right corner.
Spain would tie things up in the 80th minute as a nice through ball find Álvaro Morata, who taps it past Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the bottom left of the goal. The game would remain scoreless for the rest of 90 minutes and all of overtime, which means a penalty shootout was needed.
In the shootout, the first two kickers would miss, and the following four players would make theirs, leaving the score level at 2-2. Italy’s Federico Bernadeschi would make his, but Spaniard Álvaro Morata would have his saved. Italian midfielder Jorginho would take Italy’s last penalty. He would freeze the keeper and pass it into the bottom right corner, winning the game for Italy.
This win means that Italy are now into the Final, where they will play England.
England vs Denmark
A miscalled penalty in the 104th minutes gives England a 2-1 win in overtime against Denmark today at Wembley stadium in London. Denmark controlled more in the first half scoring their goal half an hour into the game, but England would slowly come back and end the game with 59% of possession. The game would end with England apparently fouling less than half as many times as Denmark’s recorded 21 times.
The Danes started the scoring in the 30th minute from a freekick. Mikkel Damsgaard kick the ball with power over the wall and into the upper right side of the goal, scoring the first direct freekick goal of the tournament. Unfortunately, just nine minutes later, Simon Kjær would score in own goal in an attempt to slide in and clear the ball, giving England the tying goal right before halftime.
The second half would remain scoreless. England had multiple attempts to take the lead, but Danish keeper Kasper Schmeichel did well to keep Denmark in the clear. Danny Makkelie would whistle for full time with score at 1-1, meaning overtime was needed to decide the game.
At the 104th minute, English striker Raheem Sterling would get by his defender and break into the right side of the box, near the touchline. Sterling goes down in the box and it is called a penalty. Replays on tv would show that Sterling was falling down before there was any contact yet VAR (Video Assistant Replay) said there was nothing “clear and obvious” to overturn the call on the field. Harry Kane would step up to take the penalty. Schmeichel would save the penalty, but the rebound would fall right back to Kane, who passed it into the opposite side of the goal.
I would tell you to check the match recap but the ESPN official youtube account must have forgotten to put play in their video, as they only show the actual penalty kick itself. Minutes later TUDN, the Spanish coverage, came out with a match recap, which showed the play, and all of the announcers agreed that it should not have been a penalty.
This win means that England are now into the Final, where they will play Italy.
Photo: Jorginho, Wikipedia, Creative Commons
