Euro 2012: Italy beat England on penalties

The 2012 European Championships is now in the quarterfinals with Group D winners England taking on Group C runners-up Italy at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv. England caused a surprise by topping Group D, while Italy once more proved that they are a tournament team to come through a tricky Group C.


QUARTERFINAL #4

England 2-4 (0-0) Italy (on penalties)
Goals: none

Italy needed a penalty shootout to beat England 4-2 after goalless 120 minutes to reach the semifinals at Euro2012 where Germany will be their next opponent on Thursday. It was a deserving victory for Italy, who played football throughout the match while what England was upto is only known to them.

The match made a great start with Italy's Daniele De Rossi hitting the post just three minutes in and on the other side right-back Glen Johnson should have scored when he got the ball infront of goal, but his weak shot was somehow cleared by Gianluigi Buffon. Thereafter Wayne Rooney could have headed England into the lead, but from then on it was mainly Italy with England taking a very defensive approach and relying on counter-attacks or the class of their strikers, which rarely showed. Italy's best chance before the break fell for Mario Balotelli after a beautiful Andrea Pirlo pass over the English defence but John Terry just about blocked Balotelli's shot.

In the second session Italy remained the better of the two sides and though they controlled the ball for most of the time the English defence stood their ground and it was always either Balotelli himself or Pirlo releasing someone for Italy to get chances. Towards the end substitute Antonio Nocerino had a shot, but Glen Johnson's timely block denied the Azzuri the winner; while England had a last chance in regulation time with Rooney's bicycle kick going over.

In extra-time it was once more only Italy in attack. Why England played such negative football is unknown, but Italy continued to press for the winner until the end, but it stayed goalless and penalties had to decide.

It started well for England then Riccardo Montolivo's shot went wide and it seemed their negative strategy would pay-off, but then first Ashley Young fired the ball onto the crossbar and then Ashley Cole's shot was saved by Buffon before Alessandro Diamanti scored of Italy's fifth penalty to seal a 4-2 win.