Italy are taking on Austria at Wembley in the last-16 of Euro 2020. The Azzurri’s sparkling start to the championship has established Roberto Mancini’s side as one of the favourites, but the Austrians are into the knockout phase for the first time ever after finally ending their Euros drought with two group-stage wins.
Mancini managed to keep his team’s momentum going despite eight changes to the previous starting XI to claim maximum points against Wales after back-to-back 3-0 victories over Turkey and Switzerland. Their prize for winning Group A is a place in the more challenging side of the draw, as they will face Belgium or Portugal in the next round and then potentially France, Spain or Croatia in a semi-final. The four-time world champions have now recorded 10 straight wins and have not lost since 2018. In fact, the last time Italy failed to keep a clean sheet was in a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands last October – over 1,000 minutes of football ago.
Austria will tackle their first knockout fixture in European Championship history with few fans present in London due to quarantine restrictions. They defeated Ukraine 1-0 last time out and coach Franco Foda is excited about his team’s chances of progressing beyond the first knockout round of a major tournament for the first time since the 1982 World Cup. Follow all the latest updates below.
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