Reuters
Italy set up a Euro 2020 semi-final clash against Spain after first half goals from Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne led the Azzurri to a 2-1 win over Belgium yesterday in an entertaining encounter in which both sides created a number of chances.
Italy -- who will face the Spaniards on Tuesday in London -- opened the scoring in the 31st minute when Barella picked up the ball, forced his way past defenders in the area and fired home.
Insigne doubled the lead in the 44th minute after collecting the ball on the left and skipping beyond a defender before unleashing a long-range shot that flew past Thibaut Courtois.
Romelu Lukaku clawed a goal back for Belgium from the penalty spot just before the break after Giovanni Di Lorenzo put an arm on Jeremy Doku and pushed him to the ground.
Earlier, Spain reached the Euro 2020 semi-finals after prevailing 3-1 in a nervy penalty shootout against dogged Switzerland who were reduced to ten men by a sending off but still clung to a 1-1 draw after extra time.
Mikel Oyarzabal struck the decisive spot-kick after Gerard Moreno and Dani Olmo had converted for Spain and Sergio Busquets and Rodri squandered their kicks.
Spain keeper Unai Simon saved from Switzerland's Manuel Akanji and Fabian Schar while Ruben Vargas hammered his shot over the bar.
In normal time, Spain took an eighth-minute lead when a Jordi Alba strike took a heavy deflection off Daniel Zakaria and went into the net. It was the 10th own goal of the tournament - more than at all the other Euros combined.
Hoping to win their first of four quarter-final appearance in major tournaments, Switzerland deservedly levelled in the 68th minute when Xherdan Shaqiri cashed in on a mix-up in the Spain defence.
The Swiss cause was complicated by Remo Freuler being shown a straight red card in the 77th minute, yet they held on to force the extra period and somehow survived a Spain onslaught to make it to spot-kicks.
Despite beating France 5-4 on penalties in the last 16 by scoring all their kicks, only Mario Gavranovic could beat Simon and the Swiss were left heartbroken, still waiting to win a European Championship quarter-final.
"I knew I couldn't miss and luckily the ball went in. On the way to the spot many things went through my head but I knew exactly what to do," said Spain forward Oyarzabal.
"I told Simon it was going to be his day. When Busquets missed I told Simon that he was going to save three." Keeper Simon added: "Football has been fair to us as we are the deserved winners."
While Spain prevailed, this was an extraordinary effort from Switzerland, who ended the game without their three best midfielders as Granit Xhaka was suspended, Freuler had been sent off and then Shaqiri hobbled off injured.
"I’m so proud of the team, what we’ve achieved here with the whole country behind us," said Swiss keeper Yann Sommer.