We are in the quarterfinals! The liberating cry that united the whole of Italy came at the end of an evening for strong hearts, in which we found victory, morale, but above all the pass for the final phase of the European Championship. We have to thank Spain and Croatia, authors of a real game in the face of those who imagined the much-discussed cookie, but above all ourselves, because, in one way or another, we legitimized qualification with a very important victory.
Fate then once again played a mocking role, but this time against Croatia. Because it cannot be just a coincidence that Cassano and Balotelli, hitherto at the center of an avalanche of controversies, decided it. Just yesterday, in our presentation piece, we hoped that Mario, if he took over from Di Natale, would give vent to his anger in a positive way. It was like that, and never mind if the boy preferred not to cheer: if he always scored such beautiful goals, we'd get over it.
That gesture by Bonucci then, running to "shut" his mouth to avoid who knows what insults in Eurovision, it is a sign that something is still not right, but also that the group loves him dearly. Congratulations also to Prandelli, back to play with his form and his men, even if some choices did not fully convince.
Thiago Motta doesn't seem to have enough fuel and the Diamonds seen yesterday he totally deserves the starting position. There will be time to think in view of the quarterfinals, which we will play on Sunday evening in Kiev against the winner of group D (tonight we will know who it will be, France, England and Ukraine are at stake), now it is still time to celebrate Cesare and his boys who, albeit suffering (too much?), have entered the elite of Europe.
“We were playing for qualification, it was the evening in which I suffered the most in my career. - She said Prandelli immediately after the match. – Until the 75th minute I stayed in the game, then I started asking for the result of the other field”. Which was fought to the end, in defiance of all the biscuits imagined on the eve. On the contrary, if Jesus Navas hadn't scored two minutes from the end, we would have incredibly gone first in the group, upsetting even more predictions and "gufate".
The following minutes (fortunately a few!) instead became interminable, with Croatia on the attack to look for the goal that would have expelled us from the European Championship. It didn't happen, so let's celebrate. We are in the quarterfinals, the first goal has been achieved. Now all we have to do is put our legs, brain and heart into play, to try and get up there, to the top of Europe.
