LONDON, July 12: England's hopes of ending a 55-year wait for a major trophy were crushed in heartbreaking fashion as they lost on penalties to Italy in the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley.
Despite two saves by Jordan Pickford, missed penalties from Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka proved decisive.
In their first men's final since 1966 and playing in front of a vocal crowd of around 60,000, England made the dream start when they scored in just the second minute, Luke Shaw volleying in superbly after a quick counter.
But Italy slowly started to gain control of the game and equalised midway through the second half when Leonardo Bonucci stabbed in from close range after a scramble from a corner.
England struggled to find their composure but managed to hold on to take the game to extra time and, after another nervous 30 minutes, penalties were needed to separate the two sides.
And in what was only the second European Championship final to be decided by spot-kicks it was Italy who came out on top as England's incredible run at the tournament fell just short.
(BBC Sports)
July 4: The UEFA Euro 2020 semi-final ties have been confirmed following the completion of the quarter-finals.
Spain and Italy will clash for one of the semi-finals with Spain beating Switzerland on penalty shoot outs and Italy edging past Belgium.
Similarly, Denmark beat Czech Republic 2-1 to meet England in another semi-final clash who thrashed Ukraine 4-0.
Semi-finals
Italy vs Spain (00:45, Tuesday 6 July, London)
This is the fourth straight Euro in which Italy have played Spain. At UEFA Euro 2008, Spain won 4-2 on penalties after a 0-0 quarter-final draw in Vienna.
Four years later, they drew 1-1 in the group stage in Gdańsk and then met again in the Kyiv final, Spain winning 4-0.
Italy turned the tables with a 2-0 round of 16 win at Stade de France.
In 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, they drew 1-1 in Italy and Spain won 3-0 at home, and they have another semi-final lined up in October in the UEFA Nations League in Milan.
England vs Denmark (00:45, Wednesday 7 July, London)
England and Denmark have met once at a Euro, a 0-0 draw in the 1992 group stage in Malmö.
Ten years later, England won their World Cup round of 16 tie 3-0 in Niigata.
More recently in the UEFA Nations League, it was 0-0 in Copenhagen in September 2020 before Denmark won 1-0 at Wembley a month later thanks to a Christian Eriksen penalty.
Final
Italy/Spain vs England/Denmark (00:45, Sunday 11 July, London)
Source: UEFA
MUNICH , July 2: Relentless Italians scored twice in the first half and advanced past Belgium 2-1 in an intense see-saw Euro 2020 quarterfinal encounter in the Football Arena Munich on Friday.
The Red Devils started brightly into the game and reaped their first chance with less than a minute played as Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had to defuse a dangerous attack from Romelu Lukaku.
Belgium were the more active team in the opening stages, yet Italy thought they had opened the scoring with their first chance, but Leonardo Bonucci's goal was ruled offside by the video assistant referee with 13 minutes gone.
At the other end of the pitch, Donnarumma had to be on guard to deny Kevin De Bruyne's promising strike on goal nine minutes later.
Both teams posed threat when they attacked and it was eventually Italy, who broke the deadlock as Belgium failed to clear the ball from their area allowing Nicolo Barella to slot home after shrugging off three defenders at the half hour mark.
The Squadra Azzurra picked up the pace and made it two on the scoreboards after Lorenzo Insigne gave the ball a couple of touches before smashing it past hapless goalie Thibaut Courtois with two minutes remaining in the first half.
Belgium sparked to life just before the half time whistle as Italy defender Giovanni di Lorenzo felled Jeremy Doku inside the box to cause a foul play penalty. Lukaku stepped up and made no mistake to halve the deficit.
After the restart, Italy continued on the front foot while Belgium lacked in penetration and ideas.
Belgium had to wait until the hour mark to create their next clear-cut opportunity, but Lukaku and Thorgan Hazard missed Nacer Chadli's sweeping cross to the far post.
Robert Martinez' side increased the pressure but couldn't do much damage to Italy's bulwark. Belgium's golden and last chance came in the closing stages when Doku pulled a long-range effort just over the crossbar.
With the result, Italy progress into the semifinals where they will clash with Spain in Wembley on Tuesday.
"I don't think we suffered too much in any moment of the game. To beat a team like Belgium you need a great performance by everybody, and this is exactly what happened today," Italy head coach Roberto Mancini said.
"It hits hard. We had two opportunities, but their keeper made a good save and I think we gave the first goal away a bit to easily. It really could have gone either way, but Italy deserved to win here," Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said.
(Xinhua)
June 30: As Ukraine knocked out Sweden in an extra-time 2-1 thriller on Wednesday, all eight teams for the quarter finals of the UEFA Euro 2020 have been confirmed.
Earlier, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane's second-half goals helped England overcome Germany 2-0 at Wembley on Tuesday, reaching the quarterfinals at the Euro 2020.
The quarter-final ties will be played on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 July.
All kick-off times are shown in NST ( Nepal Standard Time ).
Quarter-final ties
Friday, 2 July
Switzerland vs Spain (21:45 , St Petersburg)
Belgium vs Italy (00:45, Munich)
Saturday, 3 July
Czech Republic vs Denmark (21:45, Baku)
Ukraine vs England (00:45, Rome)
Semi-finals
SF1: Belgium/Italy vs Switzerland/Spain (00:45, Tuesday 6 July, London)
SF2: Ukraine/England vs Czech Republic/Denmark (00:45, Wednesday 7 July, London)
Final
Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2 (00:45, Sunday 11 July, London)
LONDON, June 26 :Italy needed to fight until extra time to see off their last-16 opponents Austria 2-1 at the European Championship in London on Saturday.
Italy won all three group matches to advance into the last-16 round comfortably without conceding a goal. They traveled to London to take on Austria, who reached the knockout phase of the competition for the first time.
Since the start of the match, the Azzurri launched attacks one after another. They could easily push to the front especially from the left flank with an active left defender Leonardo Spinazzola, but failed to achieve any goal when facing the tough defence from Austria.
Their best chance in the first half came in the 32nd minute when Ciro Immobile's curved long shot hit the left top corner of the woodwork.
After the interval, Austria threatened more often in the box while the Italian players showed signs of impatience.
In the 65th minute, Bayern Munich David Alaba headed the ball across the box and Marko Arnautovic nodded it in from close range. But a lengthy VAR check ruled out the goal for offside.
A scoreless tie in the regular time saw the game at Wembley went into extra time. Italy made a breakthrough soon as late substitute Federico Chiesa swept home a small angled shot near the post in the 95th minute.
Ten minutes later, Matteo Pessina added a second for Italy while Austria pulled one back with Sasa Kalajdzic's header in the closing stages.
Italy will face the winners between defending champions Portugal and Belgium in the quarterfinals.
ROME June 20 :Italy made it three wins from their Euro 2020 three Group A matches without conceding a goal as they beat Wales 1-0 on Sunday evening in Rome.
The Italians controlled the match from start to finish, giving the Welsh few options in either midfield or attack and after now withnot conceding a goal in over 1,000 minutes football, they have to be considered serious candidates for this year's European Championships.
With his side already assured of their place in the last 16, Italy coach Roberto Mancini made eight changes to the team that beat Switzerland in their first game and although his side maybe lacked some of the fluency of their wins against Turkey and the Swiss, Italy still controlled the game.
Marco Verratti was running the midfield, where the Welsh were keeping things tight, but struggling to string any moves together and all of the chances fell to Italy with Andrea Belotti firing just wide, before Verratti also sent effort the wrong side of Danny Ward's post.
Federico Chiesa flashed an effort across the face of goal and although Ward hadn't been forced into a difficult save, a goal looked to be coming. It arrived in the 39th minute when Matteo Pessina got a neat flick on Verratti's low free kick to send the ball in at the far post.
Another free kick early in the second half saw Italy again cause danger with Federico Bernardeschi rattling the woodwork, before Joe Allen almost found himself through on goal at the other end, before getting his feet in a tangle as he was caught in two minds what to do.
The Welsh were down to 10 men in the 55th minute when Ethan Ampadu was shown a straight red card for a late challenge that saw him plant his studs on the top of Bernardeschi's foot.
Chiesa found space on the right in the 59th minute, but Ward did well to keep Belotti's effort out as Italy kept up the pace looking for a second goal.
Another corner from Verratti caused problems for the Wales defense, before Bale smacked a volley over the bar in his side's best (and basically only) chance of the game. The Wales' captain was subbed shortly afterwards, perhaps to reserve him for the knockout phase as his side also progress to the next phase.
Meanwhile Mancini showed his confidence by replacing goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 88th minute with Salvatore Sirigu on for the closing moments of the game.
(Xinhua)
ROME, June 11 : Italy started their Euro 2020 campaign with an easy 3-0 win against Turkish side in the Olympic Stadium in Rome on Friday evening.
Italy looked sharp from the beginning with Roberto Mancini's favored 4-3-3 formation.
Giorgio Chiellini's powerful header from a corner was tipped over by Turkish keeper, Ugurcan Cakir, who was impressive all game. Moments before the halftime whistle, Italy had a good penalty appeal rejected after Leonardo Spinazzola's cross clearly hit Zeki Celik's arm.
Turkey produced very little in attack in the first half and things didn't change much after the break, although Cengiz could have done better than see his shot blocked after a rare break.
Italy took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute when they finally found a 3 against 3 in attack and Domenico Berardi found space on the right with options to cross or shoot. He opted to drill the ball across the area and the ball rebounded off Merih Demiral into his own net. It was bad luck for the defender, who plays for Juventus.
The goal left Turkey groggy and Italy began to pepper their goal with shots, first Spinazzola was denied by Cakir, before Lorenzo Insigne saw a shot deflected over.
Ciro Immobile doubled Italy's lead in the 66th minute as he slotted home from close range after Cakir had blocked Spinazzola's shot.
Insigne netted a third in the 79th minute with a curling shot after a wonderful pass.
With inputs from Xinhua
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