Just when you think Euro 2024 has given you a bit of everything, it gives you something new. Because Spain’s Group B clash with Italy, the tournament's first meeting of major footballing nations, was certainly different to every game that came before it.
Just one hour earlier, a rematch of one of the 2021 semi-finals had concluded – England drawing with Denmark – and Thursday’s late game carried the same status, but greater prestige.
Other games in Germany this week had felt like big ‘occasions’, but this felt like the first big match, in a purely sporting tense. It was as if this was a semi-final.
There can be drawbacks to that, such as fewer goals in some cases and a stifled atmosphere, and the mood in the Veltins Arena certainly was subdued – but not because of any apathy. Quite the opposite, in fact: The tension reflected the investment of the Spaniards and Italians in Gelsenkirchen. Italy, the defending champions, were about to have their 2024 title credentials tested, and the same applied to Spain.
Those stakes manifested a more nervous atmosphere than was foreshadowed in the hours before kick-off, when singing supporters carried jaunty moods and melodies onto the metro and into the stadium. Upon the first whistle, the players below were still serenaded with songs from the stands, but those songs rarely lasted long. They would always dissipate quickly, a fraught energy dispersing around the ground.
Actually, that energy initially materialised in the final moments before kick-off, as the teams were shown waiting in the tunnel – each side collectively carrying the air of a heavyweight boxer about to make their ring walk for a title fight.
It was reflected, to a degree, on the pitch, where both teams started by moving the ball tidily and with class, but without wanting to take too many risks. Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal, with nutmegs and roulettes, were the exceptions for Spain, while their teammates were less daring and more conscientious. In a sense, the general discipline in the Spain team provided the wingers – Williams at 21 and Yamal just 16 years old – with a platform to be adventurous.
As the game progressed, though, Luis de la Fuente’s side did increase the tempo, playing with the kind of confident fluidity that one typically associates with La Roja.
Italy, meanwhile, struggled to keep up. They were forced to remain patient, positionally sensible, and accept their role as counter-attackers. If Spain’s inferior possession against Croatia gave Luciano Spalletti’s side any ideas that they would hold more of the ball than their opponents on Thursday, the Italians were deceived.
Still, Italy’s counters did add a nice, well, counter to Spain’s approaches. The tension in the air was almost symbiotic with Spain’s prolonged spells of possession; in turn, Italian breaks opened the valve. The noise rose, with an ocean of blue jerseys begging their team to punish the Spaniards on the pitch, whose fans’ cheers were a bit more panicked.
Those Spanish fans tried to imbue a more jovial mood through another round of songs and the banging of drums, but the quickening 4/4 beat might well have been the subconscious conveyance of their heart rates.
Thankfully, their compatriots below were also quickening the pace, and it paid off with the opener in the second half: a Riccardo Calafiori own goal, after a wicked cross from the live-wire Williams.
With that, one set of fans finally loosened up. Spain’s supporters celebrated their side’s goal by woohoo-ing along as Blur’s “Song 2” crackled through the speakers, before later mocking the Italians by cheering each stroke in a sustained period of Spanish possession.
All the while, the Italians in the stands bit their nails, some perhaps biting their thumbs at their opposite numbers. The numbers that really mattered beamed around the stadium on the big screen: 1-0.
And so this tournament, which has acutely captured the attention and imagination of seemingly every fan, continued to enthral – just in a different way.
Now it can boast a match with a ‘big-fight feel’. Perhaps an unbridled, back-and-forth goal-fest and a goalless draw are all that are missing – not that anyone wants the latter, of course. We have had a thrashing (sorry Scotland), a red card (again, sorry Scotland), an own goal (hooray for Scotland), penalties, wonder goals, a first-minute strike, last-gasp equalisers and winners, a feel-good moment in Christian Eriksen’s scoring Euros return, a broken nose to a big star, storms, underdog victories, and – again, admittedly unwanted – brawls between fans.
Among the 18 games so far, there has been a host of eclectic atmospheres, and Thursday night’s was unique among them. Germany’s 5-1 dismantling of Scotland in the tournament-opener felt like a party, for example, while Turkey’s sleeper hit against Georgia was hostile and intimidating.
Spain vs Italy was something altogether different: a group-stage glimpse into the latter phases of Euro 2024, and how quality football, history and high stakes can affect emotional investment.
