England missed three penalties in a shootout at the end of a dramatic Euro 2020 final to hand victory to Italy and ensure 55 years of hurt continue.
In the Three Lions’ first major final since the World Cup in 1966 it was Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka who suffered heartbreak, seeing their efforts from 12 yards either miss the target or saved by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
England made the brighter start but failed to build on their early advantage and, despite Jordan Pickford’s late heroics, this young side will have to wait until at least next year’s World Cup in Qatar before they can taste tournament victory again.
The game had been taken to extra time and penalties after Leonardo Bonucci’s scrappy second half goal ruled out Luke Shaw’s early opener.
England vs Italy: Gareth Southgate’s pragmatism comes back to haunt him in Euro 2020 final defeat
Shaw’s strike was both his first international goal and the fastest in Euros history, hitting the back of the net after one minute and 57 seconds.
That goal appeared to immediately vindicate Gareth Southgate’s sole change in his team from the semi-final, with Kieran Trippier coming in to replace the more attack-minded Bukayo Saka.
Shaw started the move, passing the ball to Harry Kane who had dropped deep into midfield. With a huge space open on the right flank, the captain fired the ball out to Trippier who paused, waited for the ideal moment to deliver and then executed a pinpoint cross to the back post where Shaw was waiting to bury it past Donnarumma.
Trippier’s inclusion at right wing-back meant a switch to a more conservative 3-4-3 system but Southgate had explained before the match that the change was intended to make England more dangerous on the counter-attack.
The other benefit to the addition of an extra defender was that it also made England more difficult to break down, although it would begin to cause problems as the game wore on.
Italy initially found it difficult to break through the lines of midfield and defence but after the poor start they began to find their feet.
It took an individual moment of brilliance for the visitors to carve open their first chance – Federico Chiesa bursting off his right wing, brushing off the challenge of Declan Rice and narrowly firing past the post.
Other than a tame effort from Marco Verratti and a speculative long range strike from Bonucci, England were relatively untroubled in the first half but if there could be one complaint at the break it was that they looked happy to sit deep, which only served to invite pressure from their opponents.
Roberto Mancini made the first change of the second half, sending Bryan Cristante on to replace Nicolo Barella in midfield and Domenico Berardi up front for Ciro Immobile and those fresh legs appeared to give Italy more oomph, with Chiesa this time forcing a smart save from Jordan Pickford in goal.
Pickford then made another low stop as the ball pinged around his penalty box but the England keeper could do nothing to prevent the ball falling for Bonucci to bundle home after the ball bounced of Marco Verratti’s head, his hand and the post.
