Italy beat Austria 2-1 in extra time to get to Euros' quarter-finals

went against

in Euro 2020’s Round of 16 on Saturday at Wembley, where tension and excitement was palpable.

Roberto Mancini

’s men cruised through the group stage, having vanquished Turkey, Switzerland and Wales. Austria, meanwhile, appeared underwhelming in defeating North Macedonia and losing to the Netherlands, but showed off an unexpected display against Ukraine and secured the runner-up place in Group C.

Austria were so keen on putting an end to Italy’s long clean sheet run; however, during the first half Italy seemed supremely confident. The Austrians, on the other hand, tried to soak up the pressure well notwithstanding being vulnerable in their right flank at the hands of Italy’s

Marco Verratti

and

Leonardo Spinazzola

.

At the start of the second half, Austria’s defence looked more assured and their press forced the Azzurri to rush.

Marko Arnautovic

met the top left of the net for Austria, breaching Italy’s defence, only for the goal to be ruled out as offside by VAR.

Austria’s disallowed goal concerned Mancini, who responded by replacing Verratti with

Manuel Locatelli

and Nicolo Barella with

Matteo Pessina

. However, neither of the teams were able to score a late winner and for the first time in Euro 2020, there has been a thirty-minute extra time. Austria looked confident with their performance, having been as excellent as Italy have been disappointing.

A few minutes into the extra time, Juventus’

Federico Chiesa

climbed off the bench to fire home beyond goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann and break the deadlock with the help of Spinazzola. Atalanta’s Pessina then went on to double their lead, with the Azzurri’s substitutes rescuing their side from a lacklustre second half.

Sasa Kalajdzic

, however, ended Italy’s long defensive shutout with a glancing header, refusing to go down without a fight. Despite their efforts during the last few minutes of the game, Austria couldn’t score the equalizer.

Italy made it to the quarter-finals and will lock horns with either Belgium or Portugal in the next stage of the tournament.

Follow

for the