05.07.2021 – 19:19
Euro 2020 will experience a classic. Italy-Spain goes beyond a semi-final match. This considering that, in addition to the 37 precedents in their history, it will be the seventh confrontation in a continental competition, even for the fourth European in a row.
The last time was in “Euro 2016”, the challenge of the group stage in which Chiellini and Pelle sealed the 2-0 victory, although the past is more bitter for the blues, such as the final lost in the most way bad, 4-0 in “Euro 2012”.
Anyway, each challenge is a story in itself, all the more so against this crazy and scary Italy that Roberto Mannini has built, which travels at a different pace.
In 37 games under coach Jesi, the Blues not only have an average of 2.46 points per game, but at the same time score 2.43 goals every 90 minutes.
These figures, but not only put a little alarm in Spain, which together with Germany is the “queen” of the Europeans, with 3 victories each. Here are the statistics of the duel between the Italians and the Spaniards.
1. Italy has beaten Spain only twice in the last 14 encounters in all competitions (7 draws and 5 losses): a 2-1 victory in the friendly of 2011 and a 2-0 success in groups in “Euro 2016”.
2. Italy and Spain have clashed 9 times in major tournaments between them (European or World) with the Blues having won in 4 cases, Spain 1 time and 4 draws.
3. The next clash will make Italy-Spain the most played match between the two European national teams (10), in one of the most important international tournaments (European or World).
4. This will be the seventh time that Italy and Spain will meet in a European, of which 4 are in the knockout stage. “Red Fury” celebrated in 2008 and in the final of 2012, while the blue ones were eliminated in “Euro 2016”.
5. Italy is for the 12th time part of the semifinals of a major international tournament (European or World). Only Germany with 20 semifinals has been more convincing among the European representatives. The Blues have advanced to the finals in 9 of 11 precedents (in the last four consecutive times they have always been in the finals), the last in “Euro 2012”, exactly against Spain where they lost 4-0.
6. Italy has won all five matches played in “Euro 2020” and is the only team among the four remaining in the race that have had 100 percent success. Only in the World Cup “Italy ’90”, the blues were able to win more matches in an international tournament (six).
7. Spain has reached the semi-finals of a European for the third time, in the last four appearances (failed only in 2016, after eliminating Italy). At the same time, in the last two times they have reached this point of the tournament they have managed to go to the finals and even triumph, as happened in 2008 and 2012.
Org Jorginho OR Sergio Busquets : Who do you want controlling your midfield? # EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/eZp2S98UrX
– UEFA EURO 2020 (@ EURO2020) July 5, 2021
8. Having lost each of the 4 games played at Wembley between 1955 and 1968, Spain have lost just one of their last five games played at the London Stadium (2 wins and 2 draws). However, the only loss was very heavy, in 1996, with the penalty against native England.
9. No team of this European or even the history of this tournament has benefited more than Spain from own goals (three). And all three of them have come exactly in this edition.
10. Lorenzo Insigne has been the protagonist in 13 of the last 15 goals scored by Italy, in all competitions (6 goals and 7 assists). The last was exactly the decisive goal of the blues against Belgium, in the 2-1 success.
11. The Spanish duo consisting of Dani Olmo (16) and Gerard Moreno (15) has hit more than anyone else the rival gate in “Euro 2020”, but never found the net.
