Luke Shaw’s goal inside the opening two minutes gave England a lead it looked like it would hold onto all night, before a goalmouth scramble midway through the second half allowed Leonardo Bonucci to poke home an equalizer for Italy.
The Italians dominated play for the most part of the game after the break but it felt as though extra-time and penalties were inevitable, as neither side seemed willing or brave enough to commit enough men forward to really trouble the opposing defenders.
England had suffered back to back heartbreaks on penalties over the years and this time it was Italy’s turn to inflict yet more pain on the English fans as Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all missed from the spot. England’s wait to end its wretched run in major international competitions, stretching all the way back to 1966, will go for at least another year until the World Cup is hosted in Qatar.
Meanwhile, with the help of OPTA stats we have gathered some mouthwatering stats from the match.
- 2 – Jordan Pickford conceded two fewer goals (2) than the expected goals value of the shots on target he faced (4) at EURO 2020; only Czech goalkeeper Tomás Vaclik (2.6) had a higher goals prevented total in the tournament.
- 7 – Harry Kane was involved in the sequence of play for all but one of England’s goals from open play at EURO 2020 (7/8). Indeed, Kane (7) and Sterling (6) were involved in more open play goal sequences than any other players in the tournament.
- 1 – Despite playing 599 minutes (the equivalent to 6.7 full 90s), Kyle Walker committed only one foul and was dribbled past only once during #EURO2020
- 1 – Since his first game in the tournament on June 20th (v Wales), Marco Verratti ranked first among all midfielders at EURO 2020 in chances created (14), passes completed (388), progressive carries (59), tackles (18) and recoveries of possession (37).
- 0 – Harry Kane didn’t attempt a shot or create a chance for only the second time in his 61 games for England, with the other coming in a 29-minute substitute appearance against Switzerland in 2018.
- 6 – Italy have won their sixth major tournament title (4 World Cup, 2 EUROs); among European nations, only Germany (7) have won more.
- 53 – Italy have won their second European Championship trophy after 53 years from their first one (1968), the largest gap for a single side in the history of the competition.
- 22% – England have won just 22% (2/9) of their major tournament shootouts (World Cup/EUROs), the lowest ratio of any European nation to have been involved in three or more.
- 2 – EURO 2020 will be only the second European Championship final to be decided via a penalty shootout, after the 1976 showpiece.
- 34 & 71 – Leonardo Bonucci (34 years and 71 days) has become the oldest scorer in a EURO final, beating the previous record of Bernd Hölzenbein in 1976 (30 years and 103 days).
- 19 – Aged 19 years and 309 days, Bukayo Saka is the fourth-youngest player to appear in the finals of the European Championships, after Renato Sanches (2016), Cristiano Ronaldo (2004) and Anatoliy Baidachniy (1972).
- 43 – In Italy’s record 33-game unbeaten run coming into tonight’s final, they had trailed for only 44 minutes in total. The Azzurri were behind for 43 of the opening 45 minutes against England this evening.
- 1:57 – Luke Shaw’s opener was the quickest ever goal scored in the final of the European Championships, as well as his first ever for the England national team.
- 36 – At 36 years and 331 days, Giorgio Chiellini becomes the oldest player to start a final at the EURO as captain, overtaking Gianluigi Buffon already with Italy in the final lost to Spain in 2012 (34 years and 154 days).
- 200 – Having made one change to the starting XI tonight, England have now made a combined 200 starting XI changes across 37 internationals since last naming an unchanged side against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semi-final.