Italy, Too Good For Belgium.

[Source]

Italy played their game to perfection despite not being given too many chances of progressing to this stage when the tournament began. Italy first conceded against Austria as they had the perfect defensive record in the group stage and facing underperforming Belgium, it was only a matter of time before the Belgium side would be exposed and they were.

Belgium got off to a good start and it took the expertise of Donnaruma to deny the impressive De Bruyne who was passed fit to play despite injuring his ankle against Portugal. He gathered the ball in the 22nd minute and raced clear on goal to produce a brilliant effort that was saved by the goalkeeper. Belgium got denied again by the goalkeeper when Lukaku was sent through by De Bruyne in the 25th minute. He produced a lovely footwork before trying to catch the goalkeeper with a lovely low drive but it was pushed for a corner kick.

Insigne tried to produce a curling effort in the 27th minute when he tried his effort at the edge of the box but he missed by not too much. In the 31st minute, Italy got their lead after some terrible defending by Belgium and they failed to properly clear their lines. Barella made use of his time well inside the box because the slightest of touches can give him a penalty kick and he unleashed a lovely shot that flew past the goalkeeper into the back of the net.

Insigne produced a moment of magic in the 44th minute when he gathered the ball and went all the way. He cuts in to his favourite right leg to unleash a curling effort that he missed earlier on but this time it flew into the top right hand corner of the net to make it 2-0 for Italy. Belgium were torn apart. Vertongen and Vermaelen both failed to even close the gap on Insigne before he struck the ball beautifully.

Belgium got a lifeline to get back into the game in the 45th minute when Doku beat Di Lorenzo for pace and he went down under his shove. The referee pointed to the spot and after VAR reached out to him, the penalty was confirmed. Romelu Lukaku stepped up and dispatched the ball into the middle while sending the goalkeeper to the left for his 4th goal of the tournament. Belgium came back to life but it was a little too late.

Belgium should have equalized in the 61st minute when Doku sent De Bruyne through on goal and his ball across the face of goal came to Lukaku whose tap in was blocked off by the thigh of Spinazzola and he also missed the spill over too. In the 70th minute, Chadli also missed another opportunity to score as the ball fell just behind him after Lukaku missed the initial header.

In the 84th minute, the lively Doku tried to find his angle as Insigne did earlier on but he was unable to get bs angle right as he missed just marginally after driving inside.

The game ended and Italy dumped the number 1 in the world out of the Euro 2020. Italy will be playing Spain in the Semi Final encounter and this is another game to watch out for. It's hard to pick who would win this round.

Congratulations to Italy.

Thank you for your time.

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