Spain on Wednesday ended Italy’s record unbeaten run of 37 matches by beating the European champions 2-1 in the UEFA Nations League semi-finals after Roberto Mancini’s team were reduced to 10 men.
Ferran Torres scored two goals in the first half for Spain, the second coming after Leonardo Bonucci was sent off for a second yellow card three minutes before the break.
“We’ve been playing good for a while now. We are a young team playing well and I think this victory is another step,” said Torres, who came off four minutes into the second half after picking up a knock, but said he would be fit to play in Sunday’s final against either world champions France or top-ranked Belgium. They were to play after press time last night.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Victory over Italy in Italy. Now we’ll start thinking about the final,” he said.
Lorenzo Pellegrini pulled one back for Italy late on as the Azzurri threatened an improbable comeback.
In the end though, Mancini’s side fell to their first loss in more than three years, since being beaten by Portugal in September 2018.
Their unbeaten streak is a world record in international soccer.
“It [defeat] would have come eventually,” Mancini said. “And better tonight than the final of the Euros or a World Cup final, but this game will give us more strength, despite the defeat, and help us realize that we are really a great squad.”
In Milan, Italy were in the hunt for more silverware while Spain were looking for revenge after losing to the Azzurri on penalties in the UEFA Euro 2020 semi-finals in July.
Gavi Paez started, making the 17-year-old the youngest player to make his Spain debut.
Gavi, who only made his first-team debut for Barcelona a month ago, broke the national record set by Angel Zubieta in 1936.
The match in front of a passionate, sell-out crowd of 37,000 at the San Siro was played with a high tempo from the start, with chances coming at both ends.
Federico Chiesa was the first to test the goalkeeper as Spain’s Unai Simon saved his effort from distance in the fifth minute and then denied Italy centerback Alessandro Bastoni moments later.
Bastoni then made a decisive block at the other end in the 13th to deny Mikel Oyarzabal following an attack down the left wing.
Spain had been probing that left flank and it provided the opener in the 17th minute as Oyarzabal’s cross from the left was volleyed into the bottom-right corner by Torres.
Italy had chances to level the match and their best opportunity came 10 minutes from halftime as first Federico Bernardeschi’s shot was turned onto the post by Simon before an unmarked Lorenzo Insigne turned Emerson’s cross wide from a great position.
Italy’s chances then took a blow just before the break as Bonucci was shown a second yellow card for jumping with his elbow raised on Sergio Busquets.
The Italy captain had received a first booking on the half hour, for dissent.
Spain immediately made the extra man count, doubling their lead on the stroke of halftime with a similar goal to the opener.
This time Torres headed Oyarzabal’s cross from the left back across goal and into the bottom-left corner.
Despite being a man down, Italy continued to press and Chiesa hit the right post after a good run from the Juventus forward. The offside flag was up, but it would have been a tight decision.
Italy pulled one back seven minutes from time.
Chiesa sprinted forward from inside his own half to the penalty area, drew Simon and then unselfishly rolled across for Pellegrini to tap into an empty net.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS