A Riccardo Calafiori personal objective despatched Spain into the Euro 2024 final 16 as Group B winners with a 1-0 victory over Italy.
Spain impressed once more having thrashed Croatia 3-0 of their opening recreation and may have received in Gelsenkirchen by an even bigger scoreline had it not been for a mixture of very good saves from Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma and poor ending.
They dominated from the beginning with Donnarumma known as into motion inside two minutes, spectacularly tipping over Pedri’s close-range header.
Nico Williams terrorised Italy right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and may have scored with a header from contained in the six-yard field earlier than Donnarumma saved twice extra from Alvaro Morata and a long-range blast from Fabian Ruiz.
Spain picked up from the place they left off within the second half with Pedri side-footing a golden likelihood vast inside minutes of the restart, however Italy did the arduous work for them when defender Calafiori became his personal web from Williams’ low cross.
Calafiori almost scored a second, Andrea Cambiaso hacking his team-mate’s rogue header at a nook off the objective line whereas 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and Williams each continued to dazzle, the previous sending a shot inches vast of the highest left nook and the latter hitting the crossbar with a scrumptious roller.
Italy have been merely outclassed, mustering only one shot heading in the right direction, with Donnarumma holding them in it till the ultimate minute with a late save from substitute Ayoze Perez when one-on-one.
