When England Played Like Italy

This was the only quarter-final match-up that pitted against each other two unbeaten sides. England had two wins and a draw, and Italy had one win and two draws.

That, plus Hodgson's style of coaching his England squad, made the experts declare that, if there was a match that could get to penalties, this would be it.

And it was!

It was also the first match to end 0-0 at this Euro tournament.

But it did not happen because of a lack of scoring chances.
The first half, especially, was full of them.
Only 3 minutes in, for example, Daniele De Rossi had a great shot from about 25-30 metres out, which hit the post to Joe Hart's right.
Then Glen Johnson could not beat Buffon with a sitter from eight meters away, ten minutes into the game.
I should also mention Balotelli's weak run, after Pirlo's great pass allowed the striker a tremendous opportunity to advance through on goal, only to be blocked at the last moment. (Again!... Remember the Spain-Italy match, if you will.)
In the second half, there was another excellent opportunity missed by De Rossi, alone with the goalkeeper, but he probably hurried to kick the ball (and it did not even hit the target), because he thought he was offside.

There were many other scoring chances by the Italians, all squandered. (Italian efficiency was at its worst on this day, and many former Italian coaches were probably stupefied to see all these misses from Squadra Azzurra.)

England, on the other hand, played very much like Italy, defending very effectively and trying to hit on the break. But they also could not finish, as Rooney was not at his goal-scoring best, either. His attempt at a scissor kick proved that beyond any doubt.

Italy, on the other hand, did score once, with five minutes left in the second half of extra time, but it was offside.

So, the two teams remained unbeaten, and had to play penalties to determine who would advance to face Germany in the semifinals. The score, of course, stayed the same, 0-0, after 120+ minutes of game play.

The penalty shootout also seemed to have two different halves to it. There was the pre-Pirlo part, which contained the Italian miss and confident English penalty takers, and the post-Pirlo part, where the English completely lost their concentration. Andrea Pirlo scored a very gutsy, cheeky penalty, a la Panenka (from the Euro '76 final), which apparently suddenly made the Italians feel very confident, and had the opposite effect on the English. If Pirlo had missed, Italy very probably would have had to hope for a miracle to get the win, then.ww
And Pirlo's strike, of course, could have backfired on him, and it could have made him look really silly if Joe Hart hadn't dived too early. But it went in because the goalkeeper never anticipated something like that.

Here's how the shootout went:
-- Italy - Balotelli - goal - 1-0
-- England - Gerrard - goal - 1-1
-- Italy - Montolivo - miss - 1-1
-- England - Rooney - goal - 1-2
-- Italy - Pirlo - goal - 2-2
-- England - Young - miss - 2-2
-- Italy - Nocerino - goal - 3-2
-- England - Cole - miss - 3-2
-- Italy - Diamanti - goal - 4-2 (and England's last penalty kick becomes irrelevant)

Highlights: