Well then. Italy: champions in waiting, or destined to crumble at the first proper challenge? That’s 10 successive clean sheets now, which is extremely impressive even if those clean sheets have been claimed against Estonia, Poland, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, San Marino, Czechia, Turkey and now Switzerland. I think they’re excellent, but fear they’ve got a heartbreaking drama-packed 4-3 quarter-final defeat lurking in their near future.
There’s a report on this game here (with Jonathan Liew’s version to follow shortly):
90+3 mins: It’s over! Italy are through to the knockout bits!
90+2 mins: The keeper should have done quite a lot better with that goal. Goal difference could be key when it comes to ranking the third-placed teams, too.
90+1 mins:Italy are three additional minutes away from confirming their place in the knockout bits.
They’ve only gone and done another one! Italy chip the ball into the area but Rodriguez wins it, brings it down and passes it into midfield. Once there, Italy swarm, win the ball back, and it rolls to Immobile who turns and smears a 25-yarder into the corner, kissing the keeper’s fingertips on the way!
Ciro Immobile of Italy scores his team’s third goal . Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/EPA
Immobile congratulated by his skipper. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters
86 mins: Locatelli leaves the field to a standing ovation. He has, we’re told, never scored two goals in a senior competitive game before. Matteo Pessina comes on, while Brian Cristante replaces Barella.
86 mins: Locatelli is now down, apparently with cramp.
84 mins: Now Switzerland bring Djibril Sow on for Remo Freuler.
83 mins: Switzerland swing in a decent cross from the right, but nobody is there to challenge Donnarumma for it. “Greece can match Portugal as coming closest to winning the Euros one year (2004) and Eurovision the next year (2005),” counters Kristian Ulrichsen. “The Greeks can in fact go one better, as their men’s team won the European Championship in basketball in 2005 as well.”
80 mins: “This Italy side seems shaky to me, defensively,” sniffs Kari Tulinius. “Both Switzerland and Turkey, during their rare attacks, managed to pull them out of shape, without having the quality to score. I wonder how Bale and Ramsey will fare against them.” It is true that the difficult question Italy haven’t yet answered is what will happen when someone starts asking difficult questions, but you can only beat what’s put in front of you, innit?
‘Out of shape’ Italian team? Mancini may not agree. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters
79 mins: Nico Barella is on the floor in apparent agony, and Breel Embolo is booked for putting him there. Having seen the replays, I cannot for an instant believe that the amount of agony Barella appears to be in has any relation to the amount of discomfort he is actually experiencing.
76 mins: Chiesa tears at the heart of the Swiss defence before laying off to Immobile, who shoots across goal and wide from a difficult angle. And Switerland bring Ruben Vargas on for Shaqiri.
72 mins: The Swiss have an attack, which ends with Shaqiri taking a nice touch to flick the ball onto his left foot and his shot being charged down. Once the ball spins behind the linesman raises his flag, because someone had been offside at the very start of the move, about 10 minutes earlier.
71 mins: Italy have been attacking occasionally, rather than relentlessly, for the last 15 minutes or so. Do we get some kind of refund?
69 mins: A double change for Italy, who freshen up their forward line by bringing off Insigne and Berardi and bringing on Federico Chiesa and Rafael Toloi.
65 mins: And Italy run down the other end and have a shot of their own, but Berardi’s effort goes over the bar.
64 mins: Switzerland have a chance to score! It falls to Zuber, from an acute angle out on the left corner of the six-yard box sidefoots straight at the keeper.
Steven Zuber shoots straight at the keeper. Photograph: Riccardo Antimiani/AFP/Getty Images
61 mins: Shaqiri has a wee dribble and shoots well over the bar from the edge of the area. “With how good Italy seem to be, I have just found out that should they win they’d be the first country to ever win the Eurovision and European championship double in a single year,” notes Kerryyyyyy. “The closest had been Portugal, who won the Euros on 2016 and Eurovision in 2017.”
57 mins: Two more changes for the Swiss, who bring Zuber and Widmer on for Schar and Mbabu.
54 mins: My son has just wondered in and asked who this Locatelli character is. If you find yourself in a similar spot:
Locatelli has speared one into the corner from the edge of the D! The keeper doesn’t even move!
Manuel Locatelli scores again. Photograph: Alberto Lingria/Reuters
Italian pileup. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AFP/Getty Images
48 mins: These are Switzerland’s best minutes of the match. They have spent a bit of time in the final third, and won both a corner and, wait for it, a throw-in.
46 mins: For the second time, Switzerland win a promising set piece within 30 seconds of kick-off. This time the corner is headed wide.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The second half starts, and Switzerland have brought Mario Gavranovic on at the break, replacing Seferovic.
“After 1.5 matches played, I wonder, is this team truly Italian?” wonders Anis Aslaam. “Whatever happened to the great Italian tradition of starting a tournament notoriously slow and showing the best for the knockout stages?” One of many imperfect Italian traditions that this team appears to have jettisoned.
Italy is where the heart is. Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters
“This is like watching early Wenger era Arsenal,” writes Tom Atkins. “A grizzled, no-nonsense defence unleashing an attack that comes at you at speed from all angles. Drink it in now Italy fans, you’ve got 10 years until Emmanuel Frimpong turns up.”
45+2 mins: The half-time whistle sounds, and Italy deservedly lead at the break.
Manuel Locatelli (L) of Italy celebrates with team-mate Lorenzo Insigne after scoring. Photograph: Riccardo Antimiani/EPA
45+1 mins: There will be about two minutes of stoppage time.
45 mins: Embolo runs down the right, taking on Acerbi, who has a fist full of Swiss shirt as he does so. It looks an certain foul, perhaps even a penalty, until we see a replay from the other side, from where it’s clear that Embolo also has a fist full of Italian shirt. So just play on, then.
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