The football went home and ran away 120 minutes later-Southgate's "magic" substitution brought the England team into the final.
In the early morning of July 12, the European Cup decisive battle was staged-the England team led by Luke Shaw's goal at 1:57. In the second half, Bonucci scored a corner kick to help Italy equalize the score.
Just 1 minute and 57 seconds into the game, Luke Shaw helped the England team lead.
After the two sides suffered overtime fighting, the score was still 1-1, and they could only enter the cruel penalty shootout-Bellotti's penalty was saved by Pickford, and Rashford's penalty hit the goal post. , Sancho's penalty was saved by Donnarumma, Jorginho's penalty was also confiscated by Pickford, and Saka who played the last time also missed the penalty. The Italian team won the European Cup!
It is worth mentioning that both Sancho and Rashford were replaced by penalty kicks at the end of the overtime game, and both missed the penalty, which copied the sad scene of coach Southgate 25 years ago...
Let's first look at the history of the confrontation between the two teams.
England and Italy have faced each other 27 times in the history of A-level competitions. Italy has 11 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses.
In the past 14 matches, Italy lost only 2 games. The last time it lost was in the warm-up match in August 2012, when it lost 1-2.
This is also the only defeat of the Azzurri in the past 8 encounters.
In this final, England became the 13th team to enter the European Cup final-if they win the championship, they will become the 11th team in history to win the European Cup. This will also be England since winning the World Cup in 1966. To the second Intercontinental Championship.
Although Italy had a European Cup championship, it has a long history. Since winning the European Cup for the first time in 1968, Italy has entered the European Cup finals twice, but lost to France and Spain in 2000 and 2012 respectively. .
At present, Italy is the best team in world football. Their last loss dates back to the UEFA Europa League in September 2018, when they lost 0-1 away to Portugal and have remained unbeaten since then.
After achieving 5 wins and 2 draws in the current European Cup, the Azzurri A-level unbeaten record expanded to 34 games. They also created the longest winning streak in the European Cup (including qualifiers) with 15 games.
Before the final, the outside world also seemed to favor the Italian team.
In other European countries, mainstream voices do not want England to win the championship, believing that England has made a lot of profits in the game-only one of the seven games in this European Cup is not at home.
Belgium coach Martinez said: "I think England has taken a big advantage this time. When the game enters the knockout stage, the team playing at home always has an advantage."
However, Italian coach Mancini complimented the England team: "I think they are worthy of reaching the finals because they are a team that rarely gives their opponents a chance. They are stable and I think this will be a game. Wonderful final."
The French media "Team Daily" conducted a questionnaire survey, and the results showed that 69% of French fans would support Italy, only 20% of fans said they would support England, and 11% of fans held a neutral attitude.
The President of the European Commission and German Von der Lein also clearly expressed support for Italy. Her spokesperson pointed out: "Her heart is with the Azzurri, so she will support Italy in the final."
More interestingly, the Scottish newspaper "National" put Mancini as the protagonist of the movie "Brave Heart" on the cover, and publicly wrote: "Save us, Mancini, you are our last hope. We can't stand their (England) chatter for the next 55 years."
As for the celebrities of the two teams, they are already giving the team tips.
Former England international Mills said that Emerson is a weak link in the Italian defense. "I think he can attack his defense zone. He is not in his best condition. He didn't play many games at Chelsea last season. There are weak links in the human defense system, and we must make full use of it."
Barzali gave Italy a strategy, "To control the rhythm and reduce the risk of the opponent's impact on our defense, we must keep the ball under our feet as much as possible."
For this final held at Wembley, England fans also showed their abilities.
According to the "Daily Telegraph" report, a woman named Farrucci previously took sick leave to watch the European Cup semi-finals. When she scored a goal in England, she was celebrating her live broadcast worldwide among more than 60,000 fans. The lens was taken.
When she was about to go to work the next day, she watched the live broadcast of the boss call and fired her...
Although Farrucci’s emotions are complicated, she has no regrets: "I will watch the game at all costs, and I cannot refuse it. This is something that has never happened since 1996. I clearly remember when Southgate When the penalty kick was missed, my mother was crying on the sofa. Football is my life."
According to media forecasts, 8 million people have asked their bosses for leave on Monday after the finals. Some schools have also stated that children can come late in class on Monday without being punished.
According to the "Daily Mirror" report, more than 30,000 British fans have jointly petitioned. If England wins the first European Cup in team history, I hope the government will set the next day (local Monday) as a public holiday so that they can stay overnight. carnival.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded: "This is a very tempting wish. Let us see what happens next."
English fans want to cheer at home, as do Italian fans.
According to the "Daily Mirror" report, with the approval of the British government, an additional 1,000 Italian fans will be allowed to watch the European Cup final at Wembley Stadium.
Prior to this, UEFA has distributed 6,500 tickets to Italian fans, but this is limited to fans living in the UK.
The 1,000 fans who are now approved will take chartered flights from Rome and Milan to watch the game before the game.
Italian President Mattarella also came to the scene to cheer for the Italian national team.
However, outside the stadium, it was the English fans without tickets who took the lead-they collectively attacked Wembley Stadium, which once caused a fight and chaos...
In addition, final referees have also become the focus.
According to the "Daily Mail" report, Bjorn Kuipers served as the referee of the European Cup final.
The Dutchman Kuipers is known as the richest referee in the world, with a net worth of £11.5 million.
Italian starters: Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Chiellini, Bonucci, Emerson, Villati, Barrera, Jorginho, Insigne, Chiesa Junior, Inmo Bilai.
England starters: Pickford, Luke Shaw, Stones, Maguire, Walker, Trippier, Rice, Phillips, Mount, Sterling, Kane.
At the age of 36 and 331 days, Chiellini became the oldest player to participate in the final as captain in the European Cup. Previously, this record was held by the Italian goalkeeper Buffon (34 years and 154 days) in the 2012 final.
The game only opened 1 minute and 57 seconds, Kane instigated midfielder, Trippier sent a 45-degree cross, and Luke Shaw volleyed and scored, England 1-0 ahead of Italy.
Luke Shaw’s goal became the fastest goal in the history of the European Cup final. This is also the first goal of Luke Shaw’s national team career for England. Today is his 26th birthday.
This is also the first time that Italy has conceded a goal in a game since September 2020, ending the record of not falling behind in 14 games.
At the same time, Mancini's Italian team were behind in a record 33 unbeaten games, and they were only behind by 44 minutes in total.
But in the first half of the final against England, the Azzurri fell 43 minutes behind.
The Italian team fell behind at the beginning, but the Italian team did not get back in time-in the face of intensive defense, short passes, long passes, and diagonal passes were all used, but only Chiesa's personal breakthrough long shot created a real threat.
It can be said that Italy was in the rhythm of England's game throughout the first half.
The legendary England striker Alan Shearer said, “England has put its own brand in the game. They oppress, they harass, they provide breadth. This has caused all kinds of problems for the Italian team. Everything is very positive. ."
Among them, in the 2018 World Cup and the current European Cup, Trippier created more opportunities than any other defender (28 times), and only De Bruyne (36 times) created more opportunities than him in both competitions. Opportunity.
In the entire first half, Italian midfielder Jorginho had more interceptions (4 times) than any other player on the pitch, the total of the entire England team.
In the second half of the game, Mancini replaced Immobile and Varela, and used Berardi and Cristante.
Subsequently, the Italian team began to take the initiative, the ball possession rate once accounted for 71%.
In the 66th minute of the game, the Italian team found a chance in a set kick, Bonucci made a chaotic shot and the Italian team evened the score.
Bonucci, 34 years old and 71 days old, is the oldest goal scorer in the European Cup final so far. He is also the first Italian player to score a goal in the final of a major international competition since Materazzi played against France in the 2006 World Cup.
Italy scored 13 goals in this European Cup, which is the highest number of goals scored by the Azzurri in a single European Cup and World Cup.
In addition, this game is also the first European Cup or World Cup final in history in which defenders scored multiple goals.
This is also the first European Cup final where both teams have scored since 2000 (France 2-1 Italy).
Regarding the panic of the England team, the BBC wrote-"You can feel the fear surrounding Wembley. You can feel it spreading to the entire country like wildfire."
"The England team has done a very good job of maintaining stability because their legs are like jelly."
England fans also expressed dissatisfaction with the conservativeness of the team in the second half-"Is England the most negative group of people in the football world?" "The game is more and more like the FA Cup game between the Premier League and the amateur team".
On the Italian side, Chiesa played well in this game-he played 86 minutes, 4 attempts and 3 successes, with a passing success rate of 77.8%, winning 7 ground confrontations and 1 high-altitude contest.
On the defensive end, Chiesa contributed 1 clearance and 3 steals.
After winning 1-1 in 90 minutes, the two sides entered overtime, but they still had nothing to do. They could only rely on a penalty kick to decide the winner.
This is also the second time in the history of the European Cup to enter a penalty shoot-out.
In the end, the English people still have no choice but to cry-the penalty shootout is really their natural enemy.