Italy book semifinal spot with win over Belgium

Italy set up a Euro 2020 semifinal clash against Spain after first-half goals from Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne led the Azzurri to a 2-1 win over Belgium on Friday in an entertaining encounter in which both sides created a number of chances.

* Get DStv to watch all the action live.

Italy - who will face the Spaniards on Tuesday in London - opened the scoring in the 31st minute when Barella picked up the ball, forced his way past defenders in the area and fired home.

Insigne doubled the lead in the 44th minute after collecting the ball on the left and skipping beyond a defender before unleashing a long-range shot that flew past Thibaut Courtois.

Romelu Lukaku clawed a goal back for Belgium from the penalty spot just before the break after Giovanni Di Lorenzo put an arm on Jeremy Doku and pushed him to the ground.

Spain squeezed past Switzerland 3-1 in a penalty shootout to reach the last four after their battling opponents clung to a 1-1 draw after extra time despite going down to 10 men.

MATCH FACTS

Italy have reached the semifinals of a major tournament (World Cup/Euros) for the 12th time – the only European nation to do so more is Germany (20 times). They have progressed from each of their last four such semifinals.

Italy have extended their longest ever unbeaten run to 32 games (W27 D5), winning each of the last 13 in a row.

Belgium have faced Italy more times at major international tournaments (World Cup/Euros) without winning than any other side (5), while Italy have only faced Germany (9) more often at the same tournaments without losing.

Italy coach Roberto Mancini became only the second coach in European Championship history to win each of his first five matches in the competition finals after Michel Hidalgo, who won all five of his matches in charge of France at the 1984 edition.

Including the qualifying rounds, Italy have won each of their last 15 European Championship matches, a competition record. Belgium themselves had won 14 consecutive such matches before today's defeat.

No Belgian player has scored more goals than Romelu Lukaku at either the European Championships (six) or the World Cup (five, level with Marc Wilmots). Lukaku has scored 24 goals in his last 23 appearances for Belgium, including 22 in his last 19 competitive internationals.

All six of Nicolò Barella’s goals for Italy have been scored in the first half of games, with four of them opening the scoring. Since making his Italy debut in October 2018, he has scored seven goals in 116 club matches, compared to six goals in 27 international matches.

Jéremy Doku became the youngest player ever to play a major tournament knockout stage match (World Cup/Euros) for Belgium (19y 36d), while he was the first teenager to win a penalty at the Euros since Wayne Rooney for England vs France in 2004.

The average age of the five starting centre-backs in this match was 34 years and 234 days, with Giorgio Chiellini (36) and Leonardo Bonucci (34) for Italy, and Thomas Vermaelen (35), Jan Vertonghen (34) and Toby Alderweireld (32) for Belgium.