The EURO U21 tournament got underway this week, with hosts Italy entertaining Spain in a mouth-watering opening encounter. Set to be played at Bologna's Renato Dall'Ara stadium, the clash would see the talent of the Spain side, headlined by Real Madrid’s Dani Cabellos, taking on the grit of the Moise Kean starring Italy. All the ingredients for a great game and certainly for a cracking instalment in our ‘Framed’ series.
Having qualified as hosts for the tournament, Italy hadn't played a competitive game in a fair while prior to this match. On top of that, they’ve struggled against strong opposition in recent friendly matches, losing to the likes of Germany, England and Belgium. By contrast, Spain had been flying, winning nine of their 10 group matches in qualifying.
The game started much as the pre-game statistics suggested it would, Spain on top, typified by a wonderful long range effort from Cabellos that was deliciously curled into the top corner. 1-0 Spain after eight minutes. But that’s where the predictability ended. The Azzurrini kicked into gear and started to grow into the game. Now whether he meant it or not is open to debate, but Fiorentina frontman Federico Chiesa equalised, beating the keeper at his near post.
That spurred Italy on and a second half blitz beat Spain, with a second goal coming from Chiesa following good work from Patrick Cutrone and Nicolo Barella, and a third being added from the spot by Pellegrini, who VAR adjudged to have been pulled back in the box. Three points, 30,000 happy Italians spilling back into the Emilia-Romagna region and a great opening to the tournament for everyone else.
Photography by Giacomo Cosua for SoccerBible.
