In the end, it all came down to one kick. One kick from Jorginho, for everything. Earlier misses by Dani Olmo and Álvaro Morata had put Italy in prime position to qualify for Sunday’s final against England or Denmark. With a calmness belying the enormity of the moment, Jorginho rolled the ball into the corner to conclude almost three hours of the highest tension, and break Spanish hearts.
It was a semi-final that would have been a worthy final, a game that pulsed and throbbed like a human heart. Spain played probably their best game of the tournament; Italy managed to hold them at bay without ever quite hitting the heights of their earlier matches. Morata’s cool late finish, cancelling out Federico Chiesa’s goal on the hour, turned out to be only the start of the drama at a whooping, enthralled, drained Wembley.
