'How we conquered Wembley': Italian press reacts to Euro 2020 win as England laments 'heartbreaking' loss
The Italian media Monday celebrates the Azzurri's Euro 2020 triumph
Italy had fans on edge during several games of the European Championship tournament, but no match was more nailbiting than the final against England at Wembley.
The anxiety descended after England caught Italy off-guard with a brilliant goal soon after kick-off. But then fear turned into exuberant celebrations across the country after Italy secured victory, lifting the European Championship trophy for the first time since 1968.
The Italy squad arrive in Rome on Monday morning after their Euro 2020 triumph.
Headlines in the Italian press on Monday ranged from “We conquered Wembley” to “Italy, you’re the Queen”.
Gazzetta della Sport said: “It was an unforgettable night in London. After two minutes we were behind. Then [Leonardo] Bonucci equalised … the team knew how to recover a match that seemed lost, as only the greatest teams know.”
Enrico Currò, a journalist for La Repubblica wrote: “In the home of England, which is on a perpetual fast since the 1966 World Cup, and in the deafening theatre filled beyond the limits put in place by Covid, the Azzuri won their second European title.” The Italian press took as much joy out of beating England on home turf as they did about teasing English fans about their “It’s Coming Home” chant.
Bonucci said on Sunday night that the chant had galvanised the team. “We heard it day in, day out ever since Wednesday night, since the Denmark game, that the cup would be coming home to London. Sorry for them but actually the cup will be taking a nice flight to Rome.”
Indeed, the trophy was already in the Italian capital by 7am CET. “It’s ours, the cup has returned home,” said Corriere della Sport.
The joy in Italy is a far cry from the despair that enveloped the country when the national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the first such failure since 1958. The coach, Roberto Mancini, has been widely credited with reversing the national side’s fortunes. Tuttosport declared him a “magnificent visionary”.
“He is the reconstructor of a national team that dissolved on the cursed night of 13 November 2017, and rebuilt it in three years,” the newspaper said. “Mancini changed the mentality, the game, the perspective of an Italy that is madly beautiful and therefore unique.” Moreover, Mancini created a side that “believed in itself and was never afraid to push its limits further and further”.
The squad is now resting before bringing the trophy to the president, Sergio Mattarella, who was among the spectators at Wembley, on Monday evening. The players will be joined by Matteo Berrettini, the first Italian tennis player to reach a singles final at Wimbledon. Berrettini was also there to cheer on Italy at Wembley.
The team will also meet the prime minister, Mario Draghi, who said the side, led by Mancini, “showed an extraordinary spirit”.
Meanwhile the excruciating agony of England’s loss on penalties in the final of Euro 2020 dominates their domestic front pages after the team repeated history at Wembley.
There is no more poignant parallel than manager Gareth Southgate consoling his players 25 years after his miss sent England out of Euro 96 at the same stadium, and the image features on many of the fronts.
The Telegraph says “The ultimate agony … penalties heartbreak again” over the top of a giant, poster-style front page showing Southgate with his arms around Bukayo Saka. The paper’s columnist, Jim White, draws on the aphorism familiar to many football fans to sum up the evening: “Even as the minutes drifted towards penalties, hope remained intact. But you know what hope does: it kills you.”
The Mail features a very similar image alongside the headline: “It all ends in tears”. The paper also promises a 24-page special pullout edition inside although that might be for fans with a strong constitution this morning.
Writing inside, Oliver Holt says Wembley was “literally bouncing” after Luke Shaw’s brilliant opening goal but England were finally undone by the “ghosts of the past” which also reared their ugly head in chaotic crowd scenes before the match.
The Guardian’s poster-style front page also features the Gareth Southgate/Saka picture and the headline “So close”. Chief sports writer Barney Ronay nevertheless finds some solace in the devastating defeat by emphasising that the players have lit up the summer with their run to the final in a tournament that has lifted everyone’s spirits.
He writes: “After a year and half of fear and isolation football has, for the last few weeks, provided a reminder that other things also exist, that there is also hope and warmth to be found, other stories to be written.” The Express also seeks some positive note from the glorious few weeks of the tournament with a front page headline saying “It hurts … but we’re so proud of you”.
And the Sun exhorts the nation to be proud of the vanquished players with the headline “Pride of lions”, and notes that the World Cup is “only next year”.
The Mirror and i both go with a simple “Heartbreak”.
The Times headline says “Penalty curse denies England their dream” while it has also produced a wraparound for the main edition featuring a picture of the dejected England players and the headline “Arrivederci”.
Meanwhile Italians celebrated the title as a new beginning not only for their youthful national team but for a country that’s been yearning to return to normalcy after being hit hard and long by the coronavirus pandemic.
A cacophony of honking cars, fireworks and singing fans filled the night in Rome as thousands of people took to the streets after Italy beat England to win its first major soccer trophy since the 2006 World Cup.
“We are coming out of a difficult year and a half which has left us exhausted, like other countries in the world,” said Fabrizio Galliano, a 29-year-old from Naples who watched the match on a big screen in downtown Rome. “This means so much. Sports is one of the things that unites us, among all the things that separate us. But to finally be able to feel that joy that we’ve been missing, it goes beyond sports.”
Many Italians saw the European Championship as a relaunch for a country that spent much of the past 16 months in various stages of lockdown. Italy was the first country outside Asia to get hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and suffered immensely, particularly in the spring of 2020 when hospitals in northern Italy were overwhelmed with patients and the death toll soared. Italy has recorded more than 127,000 COVID deaths, the highest in the 27-nation European Union.
“It’s been a complicated year for everyone but especially for us who were one of the first countries hit. This is a signal of a new beginning,” said Michela Solfanelli, a 30-year-old event producer based in Milan.
Most virus restrictions have been lifted since the spring and those that remain were largely ignored by the mass of Italy fans who danced in the streets of the capital chanting “we are champions of Europe.” David Bellomo, a 23-year-old from the southern city of Bari, pointed out that this was Italy’s second big victory this year, after Italian band Maneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
“Thanks to Eurovision and thanks to this game and soccer we’ve managed to come back this year,” he said. “We almost got a triple,” he added, referring to Matteo Berrettini, the Italian tennis player who lost the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic earlier in the day.
Shoulder to shoulder, fans nervously watched the penalty shootout on two big screens set up on Piazza del Popolo, an elliptical cobblestone square at the edge of Rome’s historic centre. A deafening roar rose to the sky as Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved England’s last penalty.
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