Spain reach last 16 with dominant victory over Italy

A Riccardo Calafiori own goal sent Spain into the Euro 2024 last 16 as Group B winners with a 1-0 victory over Italy.

Spain impressed again having thrashed Croatia 3-0 in their opening game and should have won in Gelsenkirchen by a bigger scoreline had it not been for a mix of superb saves from Italy’s Gianluigi Donnarumma and poor finishing.

They dominated from the start with Donnarumma called into action within two minutes, spectacularly tipping over Pedri’s close-range header.

Nico Williams terrorised Italy right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and should have scored with a header from inside the six-yard box before Donnarumma saved twice more from Alvaro Morata and a long-range blast from Fabian Ruiz.

Spain picked up from where they left off in the second half with Pedri side-footing a golden chance wide within minutes of the restart, but Italy did the hard work for them when defender Calafiori turned into his own net from Williams’ low cross.

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Team news:

Spain made one change from their victory over Croatia with Aymeric Laporte coming in at centre-back for Nacho.
Italy stuck with the same XI that beat Albania in their opening game.

Calafiori nearly scored a second, Andrea Cambiaso hacking his team-mate’s rogue header at a corner off the goal line while 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and Williams both continued to dazzle, the former sending a shot inches wide of the top left corner and the latter hitting the crossbar with a delicious curler.

Italy were simply outclassed, mustering just one shot on target, with Donnarumma keeping them in it until the final minute with a late save from substitute Ayoze Perez when one-on-one.

Stats: Story of the match

So far in Group B…