Boss Mancini salutes the fight and spirit of his Euro finalists
ROBERTO Mancini was delighted by Italy’s fight and spirit after sealing a shot at European Championship glory by beating Spain on penalties following a scintillating semi-final on Tuesday night.
Italy struck first as Federico Chiesa curled home a sublime effort, but Spain substitute Alvaro Morata finished a fine team move to send the match into extra time.
The match ended 1-1 after 120 minutes and had to be settled by spot-kicks, with Morata denied by Gianluigi Donnarumma before Jorginho coolly swept home to seal 4-2 shootout triumph for Mancini’s men.
“First and foremost, we’re delighted to have been able to provide this wonderful evening’s entertainment to the Italian people,” the former Manchester City boss said.
“Now we still have one more game to go and we wanted to do exactly that if possible.
“We knew it was going to be a very tough match because in terms of ball possession Spain are the best around.
“They caused us problems. We had to dig in when we needed to. We tried to score or create opportunities when we could.
“It was a very open match and, of course, there were some issues because we did not have too much possession.
“However, we wanted to make it into the final and we kept trying right until the end.
“As ever, penalties are a lottery but I really want to take my hat off to Spain. They’re a wonderful team.”
Italy have impressed throughout the Euros and stretched their unbeaten run to a jaw-dropping 33 matches, but Mancini knows they have not achieved anything yet.
“I thank the players because they believed right from day one that we could create something incredible,” he said.
“We haven’t done everything we need to. There’s still one step to go. Now we have to rest up because this really was very challenging.”