Italy beat Austria by 2-1 in extra time in the Euro 2020 round of 16 stage at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.
The regulation 90 minutes finished goalless but in the first half of the extra time, Federico Chiesa and Matteo Pessina scored two goals and earned the ticket for the quarterfinals. Sasa Kalajdzic reduced the margin but it wasn’t enough for Austria.
Austria have managed to break the Italian defence, who kept clean sheets in the last 11 international matches.
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Italy 2-1 Austria Team News:
Roberto Mancini went with his preferred 4-3-3 formation. After using the reserve players in the last group stage game against Wales, Italian boss has gone with the strongest eleven. Marco Verratti returned to the starting line-up for Manuel Locatelli. Ciro Immobile led the line for Italy.
Austria went with 4-2-3-1 formation against the mighty Italians. David Alaba started on the left-back and Marcel Sabitzer was in the number ten spot. Marco Arnautovic started in the center forward position.
Italy 2-1 Austria Post-match analysis:
Italy dominated the first half and had multiple chances to lead. On the other hand, Austria tried to sit back, soak up the pressure and hit on the break by utilizing the high defensive line of the Azzurri.
Nicolo Barella had a great chance to break the deadlock but his shot was brilliantly saved by the Austrian goalkeeper. The best chance of the half was Ciro Immobile’s long-range shot which came off the post after beating the goalkeeper.
Austria started the second half on the front foot and troubled the Italian defence. Franco Foda’s side thought they broke the deadlock after Arnautovic scored the goal but the start was offside and VAR disallowed the goal.
After finishing the first 90 minutes goalless, Italy found two in the first half of the extra time. Substitute Chiesa broke the deadlock early in the half and another substitute Matteo Pessina doubled the margin late in the half.
In the second half, Austria halved the deficit by an excellent diving header of Kalajdzic but it was too little too late for Foda’s side to overcome the two-goal deficit against Italy.
Notable Performances:
Federico Chiesa: The Juventus forward looked threatening and troubled the Austrian defence a lot. He scored the opener as well after coming off the bench late in the second half.
Matteo Pessina: The midfielder also came on as a substitute and scored the second goal in the extra time. He now scored two goals from midfield in Euro 2020.
Dominico Berardi: The forward looked anonymous in the game and failed to do anything significant for his team.
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