AS ITALY MOVED a step closer to ending a wait for a European Championship triumph that has lasted more than half a century, Spain were left wondering what might have been last night at Wembley.
To reflect on a thrilling Euro 2020 semi-final, Paul Dollery dialled up David Sneyd and Shane Keegan for the latest instalment of The Football Family podcast.
“From the very first group game they looked like a collective,” Shane said of the Italians, who are now one win away from claiming the Henri Delaunay Trophy for the first time since 1968.
“That’s not to say that they don’t have individual quality, but for all the individual quality that they have, they still manage to make themselves more than the sum of their parts. They’ve just got so much going for them.
“There’s the typical Italian cuteness, there’s a centre-back pairing that you run out of superlatives for, there’s the collectiveness, and we’re after getting a couple of fantastic individual moments from nearly half a dozen different players at this stage, with the amount of players who have come up with something special for them.
“In these cagey, tight games, inevitably it probably is one fella coming up with something a little bit special rather than your free-flowing 12/13-pass move that tends to make the difference.
“They’ve looked excellent and most importantly they’ve managed to come through games where they haven’t been at their best – twice. That’s a really great sign.”
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