Key events
44 min: Le Normand in the wars again as Frattesi gives him a gentle clip around the lug. This might be payback for his earlier no-nonsense clatter into Barella, you know.
43 min: Le Normand makes off down the right at pace. He’s cynically hauled back by Calafiori, who is absurdly fortunate to escape without a booking. Had he received the card he should have, he’d have been out of Italy’s next match against Croatia.
41 min: Williams and Morata combine to bustle the ball down the middle. The ball breaks on the edge of the box to Fabian Ruiz, who thrashes a shot straight at Donnarumma.
39 min: Williams tries to burst into the Italy box down the inside-left channel but is stopped by Bastoni’s block. Perfectly timed. It had to be. Williams is forcing Italy to live on the edge.
38 min: Fabian Ruiz’s shot is now halfway to Dortmund.
37 min: Williams hooks the free kick back for Fabian Ruiz, alone in a pocket of space, 25 yards out. Fabian Ruiz leans back and blooters the ball 25 yards over the bar.
36 min: Williams is too good for Di Lorenzo. He wins a 50-50 header, then gets his body in the way as he stuns the ball, then dinks past the defender to draw a foul. Di Lorenzo undone by power and grace. A free kick in a very dangerous area, just to the left of the Italian box.
35 min: Williams catches Frattesi in the chest with a high kick. Again accidental; again Italy aren’t totally happy about it. Donnarumma keeps his counsel this time.
33 min: Spain have enjoyed 62 percent of possession so far, and completed nearly twice as many passes. But it’s still 0-0. “After the stale and soft cheese and onion crisp that was the England performance against Denmark, this is a proper wasabi peanut of a game,” writes Bill Preston. “All sorts of energy, there’s a momentum to the Spanish side that might be described as getting a stomp on to Italy’s defence, and the forwards are producing thrillingly heroic strikes. Superb palate cleansers.”
31 min: Le Normand clears a loose ball in the 1980s Spanish style. Hoof! Ooyah, oof! Barella, skittled over in the process, requires a little treatment.
29 min: Spain paint triangles so picture-perfect they could put Picasso to shame. Carvajal cuts back for Rodri, whose instant low piledriver is blocked. “It would appear that Italy are actually wearing Sergio Georgini rather than Armani suits this evening,” observes Simon McMahon. “A half-time change of clothes required it would seem.”
27 min: Rodri rolls the dice with a daisycutter from the best part of 30 yards. Always wide. Worth a go. A Spanish goal looks merely a matter of time.
26 min: Spain come again immediately through Fabian Ruiz, who pearls a rising shot goalwards from 25 yards. Donnarumma is forced to tip over to stop the ball planting in the top right.
25 min: Yamal spins 30 yards from goal and magics up a pocket of space from absolutely nowhere. He steams infield, leaving Dimarco in his dust, before slaloming past three men, reaching the edge of the box and slipping Morata in down the channel. Morata is pushed wide enough that his shot from a tight angle is easily blocked. Shame, because had Morata scored, Yamal would have had an assist for the ages.
23 min: Spain should really have made the breakthrough by now, but there’s no sense of frustration as they continue to stroke the ball around with great confidence. Italy haven’t got going, but that’s because they’ve simply not been allowed to do so.
21 min: Pellegrini dinks a pass down the left to release Dimarco into acres of space. He’s got white shirts in the centre, but pulls his cross behind them all and Spain clear their lines.
20 min: Williams diddles Di Lorenzo for the 874th time already, and swans into the box. Di Lorenzo is fortunate that Jorginho is on hand to come across and block before Williams can get a shot away.
18 min: Most of the game is being played in the Italian half. Yamal performs a balletic spin on top of the ball to fox Dimarco, who momentarily thinks about paying the 16-year-old (!) back with an old-school reducer, but decides against it and ushers him away from the danger zone instead.
16 min: Di Lorenzo is fine to continue. Donnarumma continues to gesticulate quite a lot in the stereotypical style. He could do with simmering down a tad.
15 min: Di Lorenzo is caught accidentally upside the head by Williams. Play is stopped. Donnarumma, as Italian captain, is the only player on his team allowed to approach the referee … which he does, but in a straight-talking manner that earns him a booking.
14 min: Another long ball down the inside-right channel for Scamacca to chase. He tries the first-time shot this time, but can’t get any purchase on his lob, and it’s an easy claim for Simon. The flag pops up for offside anyway.
12 min: Williams is running riot down this left flank. Italy can’t cope with him at all. What a prospect the 21-year-old Athletic Bilbao winger is. He’ll be a fixture in this summer’s Rumour Mill, providing nobody buys him before we start it up again for the window.
10 min: Morata whips in a cross from the left. Williams, who should have an assist to his name already, flashes a header wide right from six yards. Spain should be 2-0 up, with Pedri and now Williams both passing up gilt-edged chances.
9 min: Scamacca chases after Pellegrini’s flick-on. He could hit it, 25 yards out, but opts for a back-heel instead to nobody.
8 min: Pellegrini is thankfully fine to continue. And now Cucurella clips Frattesi, so it’s clear Spain are happy to scruff up their threads if needs be. Did anyone really expect either of these sides to give any quarter?
7 min: Pedri catches Pellegrini late. Studs on shin, though he’d got the ball first, in an attempt to flick it past the defender. It didn’t look malicious but it’s a sore one nonetheless for Pellegrini, who requires some treatment.
5 min: That’s got Italy a bit jittery, and Morata very nearly closes Donnarumma down as the keeper dallies with the ball at his feet. If the early evidence is anything to go by, Italy will certainly need to get those metaphorical Armani suits filthy tonight.
3 min: That’s not a patch on Albania’s 23-second stunner, but it’s still a slow start by Italy. And Williams comes at them again down the left, nearly getting clear a second time. Spain making some early statements here.
2 min: Spain respond by nearly scoring. Williams tears down the left and reaches the byline. He loops infield for Pedri, who should score from six yards but heads straight at Donnarumma, who tips over. The keeper should never had had the chance. Nothing comes of the set piece.
After a moment of silence in memory of former Uefa general secretary Gerhard Aigner, who passed away today at the age of 80, Italy get the ball rolling. They dribble forward immediately from the kick-off and win a throw deep in Spanish territory … then fling it straight out of play for a goal kick. Onwards. Upwards.
The teams are out! Spain in red, Italy in second-choice white. The national anthems are belted out: Italy’s a hymn to the goddess of Victory being a slave of Rome, Spain’s a great chance to go tum-te-diddly-dum (no lyrics, you see). We’ll be off in a minute.
“We wear Giorgio Armani. We’ll go out there in our Sunday best. And we’ll be willing to actually scuff up our beautiful suits if required.” Italy coach Luciano Spalletti there, with a none-more-Italian response to being asked whether his team are prepared to mix it tonight if needs be. The elegant threads on display in Gelsenkirchen confirm the first part of the bargain has been kept …
… so it just remains to be seen if Italy’s play can be as stylish, and whether tonight’s match between two old enemies descends into the rough-house. Here’s hoping! / Won’t somebody think of the kids? [delete according to preference] Though as characteristically chic as Italy’s 2024 duds are, they can never ever be quite as stylish as the 1982 cut. They just can’t, and we don’t write the rules.
Some pre-match reading. Courtesy of the good doctor.
Spain make one change to their starting line-up after the 3-0 win over Croatia. Aymeric Laporte takes the place of Nacho in defence. Rodri and Alvaro Morata start after being substituted against Croatia due to minor injuries.
Italy are unchanged after their 2-1 victory over Albania. No great surprise there: that opening group win was their fourth in their last five games.
The teams
Spain: Simon, Carvajal, Le Normand, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Fabian, Yamal, Morata, Williams.
Subs: Raya, Vivian, Merino, Joselu, Olmo, Torres, Grimaldo, Remiro, Baena, Zubimendi, Oyarzabal, Jesus Navas, Lopez, Perez, Nacho.
Italy: Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco, Frattesi, Jorginho, Barella, Chiesa, Scamacca, Pellegrini.
Subs: Buongiorno, Gatti, Raspadori, Vicario, Darmian, Bellanova, Cristante, Mancini, Retegui, Zaccagni, Fagioli, El Shaarawy, Cambiaso, Folorunsho, Meret.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
Preamble
It’s the European Championship finals, so of course it has to be Spain v Italy. This is the fifth finals in a row in which these two giants of European football meet. Spain beat the Azzurri in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, then trounced them 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final, a record win in the showpiece as they became the first team to retain the European Championship. Italy have got their own back since, beating La Roja in the round of 16 at Euro 2016, then in the semis en route to winning Euro 2020.
Go a wee bit further back and there have been other big tournament showdowns, ones Spain would rather ignore: Italy triumphed in the quarter-finals of the 1934 and 1994 World Cups, and knocked them out of the groups at Euro 80 and Euro 88. Spain however have the slight edge on the overall record, with 13 wins set against 11 losses in 40 meetings.
So Italy have had Spain’s number more often than not in the tournaments, but Spain have more all-time victories, plus they’ve thrashed Italy in a final. Good luck guessing who’s going to take control of Group B in Gelsenkirchen tonight, then. Kick-off is at 8pm. It’s on!
