Football is a cruel sport and Spain's Alvaro Morata learned it the hard way last night at Wembley as he went from Hero to Zero after levelling the game in extra time to take it to a penalty shootout only for him to miss the crucial kick as Italy edged to Spain 4-2 on penalties (1-1 aet).
These was a fourth consecutive meeting at the Euros between the two European Giants. Spain had knocked out Italy on penalties in 2008 and won the 2012 Final by a 4-0 scoreline. Italy got their revenge 4 years later, as they knocked out Spain in the Round of 16 in the 2016 edition.
After a goalless first half which saw both sides missing some good chances, the deadlock was broken at the hour mark.
Gianluigi Donnarumma setted Italy on a quick counter attack. After an initial tackle by Aymeric Laporte, the ball was picked up by Ciro Immobile who then laid it out to Federico Chiesa. The Juventus winger then produced a moment of individual brillance and cutted inside before curling in an effort around Eric Garcia which found the corner.
Two minutes later, Ferran Torres was replaced by Alvaro Morata who has endured a difficult campaign due to the constant critics labelled against him for his performances.
He looked to have silenced his haters when he equalized for Spain in the 80th minute to drag it back to 1-1. A neat one-two with Daniel Olmo opened up a nice pocket of space in the box as he cooly slotted his effort past Donnarumma into the bottom left hand corner.
With the scores level at 1-1 after 90 minutes, Extra time was required, the third consecutive game for Spain. Italy had the ball in the back of the net in the 110th minute through Berardi but the assistant referee's flag went straight up for Offside.
The game was then decided by penalties. Italy went first in the shootout. History was against Spain, as no side has ever won two penalty shootouts in the same European Championship.
Manuel Locatelli went first and saw his effort saved by Unai Simon. He got down well and got a strong hand to deny Locatelli. Daniel Olmo went first for Spain but was unable to keep his nerves in control as he blasted his penalty over.
The next five penalties of Andrea Belotti, Gerard Moreno, Leonardo Bonucci, Thiago Alcantara and Federico Bernardeschi all went in as Italy leaded 3-2. The next up was Alvaro Morata.
The striker failed to generate any real power in his effort and saw his effort saved by Donnarumma. Jorginho took the next penalty and showed everyone how it's done as he used his trademark hop to wrongfoot Unai Simon and cooly slotted it into the bottom corner to take Italy through to Euro Final.
Italy are surely heavy favourites now. Unbeaten in the last 33 matches, they surely can't fall at the last hurdle? Right? Only time will tell who they face off as Denmark and England battle it out tonight.
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