Euro 2020: Italy coach Roberto Mancini hails “extraordinary” victory over Belgium

Roberto Mancini praised Italy’s “extraordinary” performance after a 2-1 quarter-final win over Belgium on Friday, which led to a clash of the last four matches of Euro 2020 with Spain.

Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Insigne scored first-half goals in Munich as the Italians extended their national record unbeaten streak to 32 games.

Romelu Lukaku converted a penalty to give Belgium hope, but Italy deserved the win over the world’s top-ranked team, who were without injured captain Eden Hazard.

The Azzurri will face Spain at Wembley on Tuesday in a repeat of the Euro 2012 final.

“We fully deserved this victory. My players were extraordinary,” Italy coach Mancini told broadcaster RAI.

“We suffered in the last 10 minutes because we were really tired. Maybe we could have even scored more goals.”

Italy are hoping to be crowned European champions for the first time since 1968, but Mancini tempered the growing expectations.

“Our road is still long, we still have two games to go,” he said.

“Let’s enjoy this victory, we’ll see. Congratulations to the guys who have been very good.”