Saturday’s failures, albeit in victory, prompted Match of the Day presenter Lineker – who was part of the England team beaten on penalties by West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-finals – to jokingly tweet: “Germany are useless at penalties these days”.
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The win sets up a match against Germany in the semifinals on Thursday.
The 25-year-old hitman was introduced late on in extra-time against the world champions specifically to take a penalty in the shootout – but blazed his spot-kick over the bar after stuttering his run-up.
The Azzurri crashed out of Euro 2016 in the most painful circumstances after four players missed from the spot, one of which was Southampton’s Pelle.
“You would rather win in 90 minutes but with Manuel in goal, we always have the advantage”. It was real drama.
But it was a tactical master piece by Loew as he matched Italy’s 5-3-2 formation which was always a hard task to break with the likes of Chellini and Bonnuci in their line-up.
Mesut Ozil had opened the scoring for Germany on 65 minutes after a tight tactical battle, with Leonardo Bonucci levelling from the penalty spot with 12 minutes remaining as the game ended 1-1 after extra time.
Germany’s Jonas Hector then smashed a match-winning penalty after Italy’s Matteo Darmian missed a decisive chance to hand his side with a win.
Happy German fans celebrated after their national team knocked Italy out of Euro 2016.
“The lads gave everything”. We have a very talented group, and have now found the right structure.
“The penalty was unfortunate, I did not think the Italians would score during the game”, said Germany Coach Joachim Loew.
Bonucci missed his penalty- – Italy’s fifth – – but Schweinsteiger blazed over the bar as the exchange went to sudden death. “I am truly a player who plays with them so I am proud when they play well”. But is sad Italy goalie, Gigi Buffon could not share in the happiness. “The tournament isn’t over”. Aside from going out, the idea was to build something and today we proved that we did.
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The standard of penalties was below what we’d expect of these teams.. It’s tough on the nerves to run from midfield to take the shots.
