How Italy Locked Down on Defense to Advance to Euro 2020 Final

But the best measure of Italy’s performance was, perhaps, the fact that the only goal that got through was sublime: a quicksilver one-two between Alvaro Morata and the live wire Dani Olmo and a calm, unerring finish from Morata. Chiellini stood, hands on his hips, as though his own personal pride had been stung. And then he dusted himself down and set about making sure it did not happen again.

It did not, of course, because no matter how much it has changed under Mancini, Italy is still Italy. Its midfield, so fluid in the opening five games of the tournament, snapped into scurrying and harrying mode, trying to disrupt Spain’s rhythm. Rafael Toloi came off the bench as a roving troubleshooter, involved in some sort of personal challenge to see how long he could go without getting a booking.

And all the while, Chiellini, in particular, seemed to be enjoying himself, relishing this little trip down memory lane. There were 60,000 people inside Wembley Stadium, the vast majority of them Italians biting their nails to the quick; there were 22 players on the field, all of them conscious that the slightest slip might mean everything they had worked toward might fall apart, and Chiellini was smiling and laughing and giving impromptu pep talks to his goalkeeper.

Perhaps, to some extent, it was gamesmanship — a sign to Spain that, no matter how much they huffed and puffed, this was nothing he had not seen before, that he was not yet out of his comfort zone, that there was only one way this was ever going to end. Just because you know what is coming, after all, does not mean you can do anything about it.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/sports/soccer/italy-soccer.html