It was the fits time at EURO 2012 that a match was decided by penalty shoot out. Azzurri had taken down the Three Lions to advance to the semi-final. Roy Hodgson's men were unable to break through the history barrier and this was the end for them. With woodwork and referees not on their side, Italy deserved to win in the test of endurance and will last night. Let's take a look at the post-match statistic
With 63% of ball possession, Italy was in complete control of the match, a contrary image to their traditional catenaccio. They had 23 goal attempts, 11 of which were on target. All other statistic are pointing to dominance of Italy last night. Once again, we saw the "double-decker" in front of Hart's goal. It was a rather unfortunate for Italy when the woodwork denied them once, and referee denied them twice.
After 120 minutes test of endurance, the two teams needed the penalty shoot out to decide their faith. Azzurri fans were thinking of the EURO 2008's nightmare (lost to Spain) when Montolovio missed his penalty. Under enormous pressure, Pirlo swept away Hart's confidence with a Panenka shot. Young and Cole coudn't get pass Buffon while Nocerino and Diamanti completed their task. It was a fair result to Azzurri, when they played better.
Stay tuned for our pre-match analysis of the first semi between Portugal and Spain, a re-match of group C. Meanwhile, check out the latest odds and markets at 36BOL Sports Betting
No comments:
Post a Comment