Ciao and hello, and welcome to the Euro 2021 semi-final review and final preview. It’s time. On 21 March 2019 (a different time, a different era, a different world) 55 national teams from across Europe and slightly beyond began the qualifying process for Euro 2020. On 17 March 2020 UEFA announced the postponement of Euro 2020 by 12 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On 11 June 2021 24 teams began the Championship proper, Italy hammering Turkey in Rome to set us on our way. Now, only two remain standing. Gli Azzuri and the Three Lions. Europe’s second most decorated national team against its most spectacular underperformers. Four World Cups and one Euros trophy on one side, a single World Cup from over 50 years ago on the other. But that was then, and this is now. Let’s take a gander at how the semi-finals got us here and what to expect on 11 July 2021:
Italy v England
Italy 1 (4) – 1 (2) Spain
Spain have been a yardstick that Italy have measured themselves by since 2008. Even though Italy knocked Spain out of Euro 2016, their failure to qualify for World Cup 2018, partly thanks to a 3-0 drubbing from Spain, cemented the Italian enmity and envy towards their Mediterranean rivals.
Carthage were the yardstick Rome measured itself against from the start of the 3rd century BCE. Even though Rome had knocked Carthage off the island of Sicily in the first Punic War, Carthaginian expansion in Iberia had driven Carthage to new heights of wealth and power, cementing the Roman enmity and envy towards their Mediterranean rivals.
Yes, this semi-final and the second Punic War have strong parallels. In the blue corner, Italy – a power on the rise, arrogant and deservedly so but as yet unproven on the biggest stage. In the white corner, Spain – the dominant Mediterranean power of recent years and despite some recent setbacks, one with its own growing potential. The stage was set, and the referee’s whistle was the declaration of war.
Italy swaggered out of the gate and almost immediately earned themselves a bloody nose. Spain ran the match throughout the first half. Sergio Busquets and Pedri set the tempo while the excellent Dani Olmo and Mikel Oyarzabal fluidly exchanged passes and places to bewilder the Italian defence. Spain dominated the centre of the pitch like Hannibal Barca dominated the Italian peninsula, picking and choosing when to fight battles, dictating the course of the war.
But Italy were always ready to switch up their approach if necessary. It was time to deploy the Fabian strategy – close off the space, burn the crops, refuse to engage in a toe-to-toe fight. Despite all their recent buccaneering, this is how Italy really do it. They let Spain march up and down the central areas, secure behind Rome’s impregnable walls. And while they ceded the peninsula, they deployed threats elsewhere – while Hannibal was in Italy, Iberia was unprotected. Marco Verratti, Emerson Palmieri and Federico Chiesa led several lightning raids down the wings and could have earned an early lead with more composure; but when the chance came in the second half, they made it count.
Spain had continued to dictate play for the first 15 minutes of the second half, committing men forward. Gianluigi Donarumma rolled the ball out to Verratti and the Carthaginian holdings were exposed. Aymeric Laporte intercepted Emerson’s through-ball to Ciro Immobile and it fell to Chiesa, the soon-to-be titled Chiesa Hispanicus. Reinforcements were flooding back but Chiesa outmanoeuvred them all with three subtle touches and drove his gladius into Spain’s exposed goal: 1-0 to Rome.
Now Italy just had to hold out. Leonardo Bonucci and Georgio Chiellini led the defence – digging trenches, fixing stakes and throwing up walls. If those two walked past you on the Via dei Fori Imperiali in full legionary gear, you’d not even blink. If you thought about it later, you’d likely assume you’d seen a pair of ghosts. Spain threw all they had at Italy but were repelled, until Hannibal found the ground on which he wished to fight – Cannae. Álvaro Morata drove forward and passed to Olmo. The movement enticed Italian defenders towards the ball and even as Chiellini realised the danger, Spain completed the envelopment. Morata picked up the return pass in space and calmly rolled it past Donarumma and into the net. The Battle of Cannae was a terrible defeat – but Hannibal knew how to gain a victory, not how to use it.
As the war dragged on into extra time, it was Italy that started to look more likely. They had seemingly endless reserves of energy and willpower while Spain started to shrink, to flinch, to tire. In the end, we needed penalties to separate the two teams, an invitation to negotiate for peace.
Jordi Alba, the Spanish captain, was quiet and anxious as he conferred with the referees about the penalty coin toss. Chiellini was jubilant. “Peace?” his demeanour seemed to say, “Rome doesn’t accept peace. We accept unconditional surrender. Now, shall we go back out there and settle this with swords like Ares intended?” It was as inevitable as the sunset that he would win the toss and Italy could go first.
Both teams missed their first shots and the next five penalties were all scored. It’s 3-2 to Italy when Morata steps up. Donarumma looms large in goal, the spirit of Rome personified. If modern memes had existed back in those days, there is one that would have been the unofficial motto of Rome.
“Gonna hit me?” Donarumma says to Morata, to Spain, to Carthage. “Better make it count. Better make it hurt. Better kill us in one shot.” You could imagine this said by Roman consuls and emperors down the years, all the way to 1453 CE when the last Romans stood defiant on the walls of Constantinople, staring down the army of the Seljuk Turks. “Better kill us in one shot”. But here, it isn’t 1453. It’s 2021 and its 202 BCE and Morata can’t make it count. Donarumma punches his effort away contemptuously and roars.
Jorginho has the final in his hands. He jogs up and does his customary leap and pause as if to say “Surrender. Surrender and you will be spared.” Unai Simon buys it, falling away to his right in pre-emptive submission, the gates of Carthage wide open. Jorginho walks through, torch in one hand, sack of salt in the other.
In the aftermath, many pundits opined that Spain were the better team on the night, unlucky to lose. Maybe that’s true. But Hannibal Barca won every battle he fought on the Italian peninsula. He lost only one battle in his long and storied career, and it was that battle, the Battle of Zama, that counted. Maybe Spain played the better football, the sharper passes, the sweeter notes. Maybe Carthage was a mightier city, with faster ships, greater wealth. But go ask a school child who the greatest nation of antiquity was.
England 2 – 1 Denmark (AET)
60,000 plus fans at Wembley watched England’s fifth attempt to win a major tournament semi-final since 1966. The four previous failures included the World Cup 2018 match against Croatia, with 10 members of this England squad present for that tournament.
They got off to an inauspicious start. While they were in control for the first 15 minutes, the red brick wall of Danish defenders gave them no joy. As the initial burst of English energy waned and the crowd quietened down from its early match frenzy, Denmark wrested the momentum of the match their way. They won tackles, pressed and harried and for the first time this tournament, England looked properly unsettled. This might have contributed to their series of errors that led to two consecutive free kicks, Denmark marching up the field like a Rugby Union team with the wind at their back.
Mikkel Damsgaard stood over the second of these free kicks, baby-faced and ice-veined. His kick was emphatic, rising and dipping with venomous speed. Jordan Pickford was unsighted by a false Danish wall and unable to stop the effort. 8,000 Danish fans went berserk and that old friend, doubt, crept out from the dark corners of the English fans’ minds. Not again. Surely? Not this team. Not like this?
England were in chaos. Pickford gave the ball away from simple passes twice and booted another straight into touch. Denmark sensed the chance for a second, and could have found it, but England found their clarity instead. First, Bukayo Saka set Harry Kane free and his cut-back found Raheem Sterling – but with the goal wide open, Kasper Schmeichel threw up a huge block. Undeterred, England came again. This time, Kane released Saka. The teenager’s cross seemed destined for Sterling until Simon Kjær’s desperate lunge did the job for him. Only nine minutes had elapsed, and we went to half-time on terms.
The second half started with more Danish pressure but they quickly tired. Even with all five subs made, from about 60 minutes on Denmark looked like a shattered team, their only hope to make it to penalties. And, although it took 45 minutes of sustained pressure and numerous last-ditch interventions, it was penalties that did them in. Not in a shoot-out, however. Sterling, England’s outstanding player on the night and all throughout the tournament, jinked past one defender, between two more and fell over. A dive? Yes. Deserved? In a broad holistic sense, yes. Schmeichel dived the right way but his attempt to smother Kane’s penalty sent it back to the striker’s feet. Kane didn’t give Schmeichel any second chance and England had the lead.
The last 15 minutes of extra time were weirdly calm. Admittedly thanks to an injury when they’d used all their subs, Denmark were forced to play with only 10 men, but England showed great composure. They pinged the ball around for minutes at a time, running down the clock until Wembley could erupt. 55 years later, the England men’s national team are on their way to a major tournament final for the second time.
This match
This is it. They may not be the two best teams in theory, but they have certainly been the two best teams in the tournament. Denmark? Lost twice in the group and had to beat Wales and the Czech Republic to get this far. Spain? Only won a single game in 90 minutes, drew twice in the group and needed penalties to get past Switzerland. France? Out in the Round of 16 and deservedly so. Italy and England are the last ones standing and to them goes the chance of glory.
There is a lingering suspicion that Italy’s quickfire passing and fluid rotations could be a level of skill England will struggle to live with. The flipside is that England have been the most Italian team this whole tournament, building their success on an incredibly secure defence which has conceded just one goal in six matches, and that a worldy from a free kick. It probably won’t be as breathless as these two semi-finals were – finals often aren’t as the nerves and pressure sap the energy and risk from the spectacle – but it will be a gripping contest. Whoever can keep their heads long enough to claim victory via any means will deservedly be crowned the best team in Europe.
Conclusion
Once more into the breach dear friends, once more. Get yourself set up for Sunday night. If you live in England, like I do, make sure your plans do not include being anywhere outside and away from home after 8pm on Sunday evening. I will not be accountable for a crowd of celebrating/despondent English lads sweeping you away to be deposited in Slough, or Milton Keynes, in the cold light of early Monday morning. It’s been perhaps the best tournament we’ve witnessed in a while, and it’ll be a shame to wave goodbye, so get it while it’s fresh. Good luck.
The It’s-coming-home-ometer rating: 10 double-decker buses covered in shirtless English fans out of 10