Euro 2020: Spain vs Italy: Semi-final laced with history

The strength of European football and Spain’s dominance of the footballing world was plain to see nine years ago against Italy. Vicente Del Bosque’s men thrashed Italy 4-0 in the 2012 final but the men in blue got revenge four years later in Kiev, beating them 2-0 in Euro 2016.

Luis Enrique is now the man in charge for Spain and they will be up against Roberto Mancini’s side in the semi-final. Both sides have had tough times in the recent past but are plotting a path toward redemption in Tuesday’s Euro 2020 semi-final.

Coming in to this game, both teams will be desperate to reach the final, as they have not played their best football in the last few major tournaments. Spain have had a roller-coaster of a tournament so far, where in the group stage they only managed to win one game out of the three matches played — and now they are in the semis with 12 goals to their name. Despite this being the highest tally for any team this summer, I feel they still aren’t clinical in front of goal and squander many important chances. They also have had a few a defensive errors, which has shown that on any given day they don’t look like a well-organised team.

On the other hand, Italy have been the most enjoyable team to watch. As they were very impressive in the group stage, and also put on a world-class display against the No. 1 team; Belgium in the quarter-finals. Italy have not lost in they past 32 games, and they will come with more hunger. They failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, regarded as one of the lowest moments of the Italian national team, but they have got a massive opportunity now to win a major tournament and set the record straight.

In a semi-final it doesn’t matter if you play good football and not win, it’s all about getting over the line. Italy are surely the clear-cut favourites but we cannot write Spain off, as they surely know how to get the over the finish line.