Euro 2020: High-flying Italy survive Austria examination to enter quarters

It may have been a different story altogether had Marko Arnautovic managed to stay onside before he headed the ball into the goal 20 minutes into the second half. The Italian fans who formed the majority at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday night were stunned into silence for a minute before VAR ruled that the Austria forward had been marginally offside.

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So, when Italy coach Roberto Mancini pumped his fists and hugged his colleagues on the Italian bench at the final whistle, it was mostly relief at having survived the proverbial banana peel of a last-16 clash against Austria.

Mancini’s high-flying team had begun the game playing the kind of fluid football that had seen them cruise through the group stage. Ciro Immobile struck the goal frame once and the Austria ‘keeper Daniel Bachmann made a couple of good saves to keep it goalless in the first half. Leonardo Spinazzola was a constant menace down Italy’s left flank.

In the end, it turned out to be a hard slog and needed extra-time goals from substitutes Federico Chiesa and Matteo Pessina to take Italy to a 2-1 win and into the quarters.

As the second half progressed, it was Austria who created more scoring opportunities while Italy looked out of ideas, unable to control the tempo or move the ball around with freedom.

Mancini had decided to continue with Marco Verratti in midfield instead of bringing back to the starting line-up Manuel Locatelli , who had impressed in the opening two games.

Italy had dominated Turkey and Switzerland playing the midfield trio Locatelli, Jorginho and Nicolo Barella. Tempted by Verratti’s availability, Mancini couldn’t resist reshaping his midfield, leaving Locatelli out again, having given him a day off in the last group game against Wales.

But tinkering with a well-oiled machine is not always a good idea, and Italy’s struggle on Saturday demonstrated that. By the time Locatelli came on as a 67th minute substitute, Barella was replaced by Pessina. It had become a bruising encounter and there was none of Italy’s swagger seen in the group stages.

What the game did show about Italy’s revival in recent times is the depth the Azzurri now possess. That a player of Chiesa’s quality has not been able to make it to the starting XI has not surprised many given the how Domenio Berardi, Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne have combined up front.

Chiesa, one of the bright lights in Juventus’ disappointing season, is just the kind of player who can make the difference a title-chasing team would like to have in a tight game like this. The 23-year-old forward showed immense calmness to control the cross, direct the ball away from the defender before hammering in for the opening goal.

“Usually when the ball arrives like this, you try and hit it first time on the volley. But I think the goal came because I was composed, relaxed and focused,” Chiesa told BeIN Sport after the game.

Though Chiesa and then Pessina scored in the first half of extra-time to all but take the tie away from Austria, the latter did expose chinks in Italy’s armour. Before Sasa Kalajdzic scored in the 114th minute to halt Italy’s run of 11 games without conceding a goal, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made a remarkable left-handed save and Marcel Sabitzer missed from close range.

It was more than just grit that saw Austria come close to causing some embarrassment for Italy. With skipper Giorgio Chiellini not fit to play on Saturday, serious questions were posed of the Italian defence.

“Of course, Austria are not as good as the teams we will face in the next round, but they really make life tough for you. We watched a lot of their matches and they do cause problems,” Mancini told reporters after the game.

“We knew that if we scored in the first half it would have been a different game. We didn’t manage that and so we had to dig deep. The players really wanted to win at all costs.”

Franco Foda’s Austria may have provided Italy just the wake-up call they needed ahead of a quarter-final clash against Belgium or Portugal.

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