End Of The Road For Spain.

[Source]

After battling hard to convince everyone they deserved to be here with series of brilliant performances, unfortunately, their road to the final ended at the hands of the Italians. It took penalties to separate the two sides.

Italy would have gotten ahead in the 21st minute if not for the timely intervention of Simon Unai who raced out of his line to close the gap on Emerson at the side of the pitch. He laid the pass to his teammates but the defence line managed to give them a tighter angle and it was impossible for them to strike at goal. And before halftime, Emerson had another chance but he was unable to get it into the back of the net.

The ever lively and impressive Olmo delivered a ball into the box for Ferran Torres but Di Lorenzo did well to cut it out just after the restart of the second half. Busquet should have gotten his side ahead in the 52nd minute when Oyarzabal found Busquet just outside the box and his effort missed just by a margin.

Italy got their lead despite Spain dominating Italy in most of the areas on the pitch. Immobile's attempt at goal was frustrated and Chiesa was on hand to gather the ball in the 60th minute. He produced a moment f magic as his curling effort found the back of the net with precision.

Morata came on after being benched and he combined well with Olmo in the 80th minute and when sent on goal, he produced a cool and composed finish by sending the goalkeeper the wrong way. Perfect introduction for him on the night.

The game ended and they played another 30 minutes of football. Olmo played a lovely indirect freekick into the box that it took the awareness of the goalkeeper to quickly snuff out as it missed everyone. Morata tried to gather the rebound but it proved to be of no threat to the goalkeeper.

Italy thought they had won it in the 20th minute of the extra time when Berardi scored but he was offside. If he wasn't, it would have been a lovely finish.

The game ended with nothing to separate the two sides and penalties came. Locatelli struck first and the goalkeeper saved it. The impressive Olmo was supposed to give his side the lead but his effort went over the bar. They all took turns and scored until Morata stepped up and the goalkeeper accurately guessed and saved it. Jorginho had the chance to be the hero of the night as his Jorginho styled penalty expertly beat the goalkeeper to send Italy to the finals where they are waiting for their next opponent between England and Denmark

Congratulations to the Italians.

Thank you for your time.

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Still me,

My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.

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