Italy Play Perfect Game to Dethrone Champions Spain

The king is dead.  Long live the king.

Two-time defending European champion Spain have been eliminated from the 2016 UEFA European Championship by Italy, and in emphatic fashion.  

The Azzurri played the perfect team game and came away with a deserved 2-0 victory and a date with Germany in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Both teams had come into the round of 16 having lost their group finale, although the circumstances of those defeats were different.  

The Italians had locked in the top spot in Group E with a game to spare and had put out a reserve lineup against the Republic of Ireland.  Even that team held defensively for more than 85 minutes before a good ball by Wes Hoolahan and a miscommunication between defence and goalkeeper gave Ireland the win and a place in the knockout rounds.

Spain, on the other hand, suffered a far more disheartening setback against Croatia.  Needing a point to advance as winners of Group D, La Roja played their starters but gave up an early lead and lost 2-1.  It was their first setback in the European Championship since being eliminated from Euro 2004 by France in the quarter-finals, and it dropped them into second place in the group—and into the juggernaut section of the bracket.

Spain did come into the game with history on their side, though.  They hadn't lost a competitive match to Italy since the 1994 World Cup, a game known for two things: Roberto Baggio scoring a late winner and Mauro Tassotti rearranging Luis Enrique's face with an elbow.

That streak has been thrown into stark relief over the last eight years.  Since 2008, the two teams had matched up eight times, with Spain winning three to Italy's one, with four draws.  In competitive matches, though, La Roja held a supreme advantage.

Officially, the record was one win and three draws, but two of those draws saw Spain advance past the Azzurri on penalties—and the win was a 4-0 hammering in the Euro 2012 final.

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Spain were favored coming in, but there was an air of competitiveness about this tie that hadn't been there in previous games, even as this Italy side was one of the worst—at least from the perspective of individual talent—that had ever gone to a major tournament.

The biggest reason Italy had a chance came not from the field, but the dugout.  Antonio Conte has often been criticised for his adherence to the 3-5-2 formation, but against Spain it is quite possibly the perfect system.

The Spaniards are reliant on their full-backs for width in attack.  They happen to employ some of the best in the world, and matching them with a traditional four-man defensive line is often suicide.

But against a three-man defence and a pair of wing-backs, it's a different story.  The wing-backs naturally push the full-backs further up the pitch, funnelling play into the back three.  When your back three happens to contain three of the best centre-backs in the game, breaking through can be a daunting prospect.

Italy have learned this lesson before.  Injuries forced former manager Cesare Prandelli to play a 3-5-2 against Spain in the group-stage opener of Euro 2012.  His team arguably played better in that match, and only a miscommunication in defence allowed Spain in for a 1-1 draw.

After abandoning the concept in the final and getting thrashed, Prandelli returned to it in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and dominated the early proceedings with a 3-4-3.  If Christian Maggio had been more clinical early in the game, Italy probably would have won.

The early stages of Monday's game looked like a carbon copy of that match.  The Italians came out and took possession early, playing Spain at their own game.  Less than two minutes in, Daniele De Rossi connected with Alessandro Florenzi on a beautiful diagonal ball.  A few passes later, Graziano Pelle fired a header from about 12 yards.  It was easily saved by David De Gea, but the first shot had been fired.

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Six minutes later, De Gea needed a lot more of his considerable skills to palm a Pelle header off the line after an excellent delivery from Florenzi.  Two minutes later, Emanuele Giaccherini, who always seems to be in the thick of big games, had a bicycle-kick attempt tipped onto the post before a whistle brought play back for a high boot.

Meanwhile, the BBC defence of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini was keeping Spain from getting their famous tiki-taka passing going.  The Spaniards were forced early and often to try to launch long balls toward Alvaro Morata, who was largely unable to beat his former Juventus teammates in the air.  By the time Spain finally got one of their trademark moves going, it was the 21st minute and resulted in a cross to no one from Jordi Alba.

Italy continued to make purposeful attacking moves.  Leonardo Bonucci stole the ball away in the 24th minute and drove the length of the field before sliding to Mattia De Sciglio, whose cross was put narrowly off target by Marco Parolo.  Five minutes later, Sergio Ramos nearly put another De Sciglio cross into his own net.

It was Italy, not Spain, who looked more likely to score, and they did 33 minutes in.  Eder slammed a free kick past the wall.  De Gea saved, but couldn't hold it, and Giaccherini—there's that guy again—was already past the defence to pounce.  The Spain goalkeeper managed to get a toe to it, but the challenge deflected it straight to Giorgio Chiellini, who tapped the ball in.

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Foreshadowing from the #Euro2016 advertising boards? #ITA 🏆 pic.twitter.com/p1fLKfzoDj

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) June 27, 2016"

It must have been a cathartic moment for Chiellini, who has always seemed abandoned by Lady Luck in major international tournaments.  He has made critical mistakes, got hurt in big games and been fed on by a hungry Uruguayan, but on Monday, he scored the goal that ended up knocking Spain out of the Euros.

Spain began to get back into the game by pressing high when the back three was in possession, but they were still struggling to make clear-cut chances.  Their best opportunity of the first half was a shot from Andres Iniesta that was tamely deflected into the arms of Gianluigi Buffon.  Morata managed a header straight at the Italy No. 1 early in the second half.  

Italy, on the other hand, nearly had a second when Giaccherini was denied by a flying De Gea on the stroke of halftime.

Then Spain were given a window of opportunity.

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In the 53rd minute, Conte made the one move in this game that could have been considered a mistake.  He took De Rossi off and inserted Thiago Motta at the base of the midfield.

The substitution took away some of the team's cohesion.  De Rossi's role in keeping Italy disciplined and compact probably hasn't been fully appreciated in this tournament until now.  Spain had more room to pass the ball, more time to think and managed to retain possession more when the Azzurri interrupted them.

But despite this slight drop, the Azzurri still played the kind of team game that has given them so much success over the last two-and-a-half weeks.  They had opportunities to extend the lead.  Eder missed a gilt-edged chance on 55 minutes after blasting by Gerard Pique at pace and firing a one-on-one shot right at De Gea.  Seven minutes later, he sent De Sciglio down the wing, but his cross got caught between Giaccherini's legs.

Between these forays forward, Spain ramped up the pressure.  With 15 minutes left, the screw tightened even more.  Iniesta pulled a save out of Buffon, who flew to stop a snapshot from Pique a minute later.  He denied the centre-back again from point-blank range, just as stoppage time began.

Less than a minute later came the hammer.  The Azzurri hustled the ball up the field after clearing a corner and started working toward the corner.  Substitute Lorenzo Insigne, who had jinked a defender out of his shoes to draw a save from De Gea five minutes earlier, spotted fellow sub Matteo Darmian unmarked on the right wing and executed a perfect cross-field pass.

Darmian took it down and crossed it.  The ball took a slight deflection that delivered it right to Pelle, who was making a run behind Pedro, who ended up defending in the confusion of the counter.  The striker's volley was a carbon copy of the shot that put Belgium away in Italy's opener, and the Azzurri were through.

For the second time in this tournament, Conte had thoroughly outcoached one of the teams that were considered favorites.  His tactics have sometimes been derided as negative—sometimes to the detriment of the sport—but Italy played toe-to-toe with Spain for long stretches, especially in the first half-hour.

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There were some excellent individual performances—Chiellini was a rock and De Sciglio probably had his best game in three years—but Italy's strength is team play.  The midfielders support each other well with and without the ball.  The BBC, along with Buffon, practically plays as one mind.  With all 11 players adhering to Conte's excellent tactics, Italy can be a danger to any team.

That includes quarter-final opponents Germany.  The world champions looked out of sorts in the group stage before dispatching Slovakia with ease in the round of 16.  They will be the latest team to mount an assault on Buffon's goal, but if the Italians play the game they played on Monday, they will be just as tough to beat.

Italy are proving to be the best unit in the tournament, and they probably have the best coach in the tournament.  Conte once said that "you can't sit in a restaurant where it's €100 a head if you only had €10 in your pocket," as reported by ESPN.  It was a criticism of his former club Juventus' apparent lack of top-level talent at that point, but given the limitations of this roster, he's starting to prove himself wrong.

At this point, anything is possible for the Azzurri—they just need the right bounces.  After dethroning the champions, winning the tournament is becoming less of a dream and more of a tangible goal.