Sunday June 20th 2021
Squadra Azzura changes goalkeeper
Italy marches, Wales cheers, Switzerland fears
Italy remains without conceding a goal at the EM. Wales lose a player and lose in Rome, but tremble in the round of 16. Switzerland beats Turkey, which was disappointing again, in the parallel game. The “Nati” still have to worry.
Record hunter Italy continued to fuel the Tifosi’s EM euphoria. The Squadra Azzurra stormed through Group A with a 1-0 (1-0) win against Wales with three wins and impressively underpinned their ambitions for the first European title after 53 years before the round of 16 with a historic record. The series winners of coach Roberto Mancini could not stop eight changes either, who not only celebrated their eleventh success in a row. With 30 games in a row without defeat, the four-time world champion also set his record from the 30s under the coach legend Vittorio Pozzo.
The Welsh superstar Gareth Bale, who has been without an international goal for 20 months or 1005 minutes, also made it into the knockout round despite the defeat as second in the table. At the EM 2016, the “dragons” made a sensational advance into the semifinals. The Italians face Austria or Ukraine in the round of 16 at Wembley Stadium. Matteo Pessina (39th) scored the goal for the European champions of 1968 in Rome. Italy have been clean for 1055 minutes – just 88 minutes away from the record set by goalkeeping legend Dino Zoff between 1972 and 1974. Welshman Ethan Ampadu received a red card for a serious foul (55th). “It couldn’t have gone better,” said Mancini, “we could only have scored one more goal.” His changes would not have changed much, “they are all good and know what to do”. Bale was happy: “We’re tired but proud. We’re second, that’s really great.”
Veratti is back
Midfielder Marco Verratti made his comeback in the almost completely turned inside out Squadra Azzurra after his knee ligament injury, which he sustained at the beginning of May. After the break, he took over the captain’s armband after replacing Leonardo Bonucci. From the 3-0 win against Switzerland, only goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, defender Bonucci and midfielder Jorginho were in the starting line-up. Despite the numerous changes, the hosts dominated from the start with long ball relays, Verratti took over the role of chief in midfield alongside Jorginho. The British initially focused on the defensive. First approaches to the goal of the Welsh were rather harmless. Andrea Belotti’s cross did not find a buyer (24th).
The offensive efforts of Bale and Co. were very manageable, mostly they lost the ball in the build-up game. “Safety first” was the motto, one point was the clearly recognizable goal. It took almost half an hour for Neco Williams to endanger the Italian goal for the first time with a header from a corner (27th). On the other side, Federico Chiesa caused initial excitement in the penalty area (29th). Ten minutes later, Pessina steered the ball into the goal after a free-kick from Verratti.
At halftime, Mancini also took out captain Bonucci to spare him for the knockout round. Another free kick almost made it 2-0. Federico Bernadeschi hit the post from 20 meters (53.). In return, Aaron Ramsey frivolously messed up the ball in the Italian six-yard box (54th). After an attack against Bernadeschi, Ampadu saw red – a tough decision by referee Ovidiu Hategan (Romania). The equalizer missed Bale, who drove the ball free standing over the goal (75.) In the end, Mancini replaced goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and brought the 34-year-old Sirigu Salvatore.
Switzerland still has to fear
In the parallel game, double goal scorer Xherdan Shaqiri nourished Switzerland’s hopes for a place in the round of 16 at the European Football Championship and finally gave Turkey the tournament knockout. The former Munich team defeated the Turks in Baku, who were frenetically cheered on by around 20,000 fans, with the Swiss Confederation 3-1 (2-0). Ex-Frankfurt Haris Seferovic brought the greatly improved Switzerland into the lead in the 6th minute, before Shaqiri (26./68.) Scored twice worth seeing. Irfan Can Kahveci (62nd) scored the first goal for Turkey at this European Championship, but could not prevent the embarrassing demise of the semi-finalist from 2008 as bottom of the group with no points. The Swiss have four points and can still advance as one of the four best third in the group. “It was important that we showed a reaction as a team today. I’m proud of it. Now let’s see what the win is worth,” said Shaqiri and Seferovic added: “We played a strong game today. We can at best each other accuse of not having scored more goals. ”
The Turks started aggressively in the group final. Unlike in the games against Italy (0: 3) and Wales (0: 2), the path to the goal was consistently sought from the start. After just four minutes, Kaan Ayhan forced the Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer, who became a father for the second time last Wednesday, to make a first brilliant save. “It was very emotional for me and of course also very stressful,” said the keeper from Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach after the birth of his daughter. In the middle of the first urge phase of the team of coach Senol Günes, the opening goal of the Confederates burst into it. Seferovic overcame Ugurcan Çakir with a placed low shot and then cheered his first EM goal ever.
Turkey is the big loser
However, Turkey did not let that bother them and remained the more active team. With an oblique shot by Mert Müldür (15th), Sommer had to stretch hard again to prevent a goal. The Swiss were much more effective because the second shot on goal was also on. Shaqiri hit the corner with a wonderful flick from around 20 meters. Only 120 seconds later, the former Bayern professional had the decision on his feet, but failed after fine preparatory work by Seferovic on the brilliant parrying Cakir. After that, the team of coach Vladimir Petkovic withdrew even further and largely left the initiative to the opponent. That almost took revenge, but Müldür failed three times before the break because of the first-class summer. After the change, the Confederates became a bit more agile again and couldn’t be pushed back so far into their own half. Breel Embolo, Shaqiri and Seferovic gave good opportunities to make it 3-0. And suddenly the Turks struck: Kahveci took his measure from about 20 meters and didn’t give summer a chance.
Now there was real fire in the game, but the outcome was only briefly uncertain. Only six minutes after the connection it was again Shaqiri who restored the old gap. Once again, the Turkish defense, which conceded only three goals in the ten qualifying matches for the EURO and played eight times to zero, was not up to date. Inspired by the third trick, Switzerland controlled the game in the final phase. Granit Xhaka hit the post with a free kick. The Turks submitted to the defeat and started their journey home prematurely as the big losers in the tournament.
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