Euro 2020 Final: Italy beat England 3-2 on penalties, bag their second title

In what has been an epic edition of the European Championships, Italy have lifted the Euro 2020 title by edging England on penalties 3-2, 1-1 after extra time in their own backyard in front of 60,000 fans at Wembley in London. A night that will go down in footballing history as the night the Azzurri laid claim to their second European Championship.

The match started with England taking the lead early in the second minute through a wonderful Luke Shaw half volley after a pinpoint Kieran Trippier cross to send Wembley into raptures. They dominated the initial 20 minutes of the game with the change of formation for England tough for the Italians to read.

However, the Italians soon found their rhythm that they had throughout the tournament. The Azzurri dominated the proceedings after that and in the 67th minute, Bonnuci found the back of the net owing to a goalmouth scramble following a dangerous corner.

The Italians carried on dominating the game but unable to find a way past the English defense.

After extra time the Italians won the toss and chose to shoot first. Domenico Berardi and Harry Kane both converted their respective penalties. Andrea Belotti then had his penalty saved by Jordan Pickford and Harry Maguire put the Three Lions ahead 2-1. The goal scorer Bonucci out his spot-kick in the back of the net but after that England missed all three of their penalties with Marcus Rashford missing his penalty and Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka having theirs saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma to give the Italians the well-deserved victory.

Euro Cup is going to Rome

It was a moment of pure joy and passion as the Azzurri captain Giorgio Chiellini lifted the Euro 2020 trophy as Italy claimed their second European Championship, with the first one back in 1968.

Before Mancini took over Italy had embarrassingly failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and were sitting 21st on the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest ever. Having lost two European finals prior to this in 2002 and 2012. Italy had also not won the Euros since 1968 but everything changed in the Azzurri camp when Roberto Mancini took over and led them on a 33 game unbeaten streak since September 2018 up until this final which has now been extended to 34 games and their record of not having lost to England in a major event carries on.

Italy have been arguably the team of the tournament, sweeping through the group stage with a perfect record where they played Turkey in the opening match of the Euro 2020 and started with a bang winning 3-0. In the second match, they beat Switzerland also by a scoreline of 3-0. With the final game to play against Wales, they came out on top of the group with a 1-0 victory.

The Azzurri carried on their stellar form into the knockout stages as they beat Austria 2-1 on the day. They played world number one Belgium and beat them 2-1 in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, they met the free-scoring Spanish but overcame them on 4-2 on penalties after the scores were level at 1-1 at the end of extra time.

This was Italy’s 10th major final (six World Cups and four Euros), with only Germany (14) having played more among the European nations.

A night to forget for the Three Lions as they just could not do enough to get past the Italian defense after the second-minute goal by Shaw. They had done so well, having conceded just one goal up until the final but just couldn’t come up with enough to get their hands on the European trophy.

Euro 2020 had been a tournament in which England had ended a number of negative sequences, they won their opening game for the first time at a Euros, beat Germany in the round of 16 to win a knockout Euros tie without a penalty shootout for the first time and, by winning the semifinal against Denmark, reached the final for the first time. However, it has all ended here for them as they will have to settle for the silver medal this time.

England’s search for international glory now carries on as they look to the 2022 Qatar World Cup in search for the elusive international title.

(Image Credits: @EURO2020)