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Euro 2020 final: Italy dreaming of victory to complete comeback from football shame and brutal Covid surge

'In England, football fever is about collective enthusiasm for the sport; in Italy, it is about building a nation'

England isn’t the only country on the cusp of realising a cherished dream this weekend. For “underdog” Italy – a nation seeking to forget recent footballing shame and bounce back from horrific memories of the pandemic – the stakes of the Wembley showdown are immense.

“After over a year of lockdown we want something to celebrate,” Alessandro Ceriani, a 33-year-old fan from Milan, tells i. “We will be fighting for our lives to win this one.”

Antonello Guerrera, the London correspondent of newspaper La Repubblica, says football serves a vital function in Italy. “In England, football fever is about collective enthusiasm for the sport; in Italy, it is about building a nation,” he tells i.

Violent political divisions that streak Italy’s modern history and Italians’ characteristic devotion to their hometowns – a phenomenon known as campanilismo – have helped form a deeply heterogeneous national culture, Mr Guerrera says.

“Football is one of the few things that unites us. It has always functioned as a kind of civic glue,” he says.

ROME, ITALY - JULY 06: Italian fans celebrate the victory of Italy after the Euro 2020 Semi-Final match between Italy and Spain, played at Wembley stadium, on July 6, 2021 in Rome, Italy. The tournament was postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
A win tomorrow would mean just as much to Italy as England after it was hit hard by Covid and painful football losses (Photo: Getty/Antonio Masiello)

This summer’s football mania coincides with a historical turning point for Italy, Europe’s second most indebted nation. Eighteen months after the nation emerged as the epicentre of the pandemic, which has claimed 128,000 lives, Mario Draghi’s government is preparing to spend €191.5bn (£163.95bn) of EU recovery funds on restructuring the economy.

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“Making it to the final has resonated with a broader sense of national optimism. That makes every win even more intoxicating,” Guerrera says.

When Italy beat Spain on Tuesday, taking the Azzurri one step closer to their first international title since 2006, jubilant street scenes erupted across the nation, contrasting with the national ignominy experienced four years ago when Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

“Not qualifying for the last World Cup was rock bottom for us,” ex-footballer and manager Francesco Monaco tells i. “It was nothing short of a national humiliation.”

ROME, ITALY - JULY 06: Italian fans watch on giant screens at Piazza del Popolo fan zone the Euro 2020 Semi-Final match between Italy and Spain, played at Wembley stadium, on July 6, 2021 in Rome, Italy. The tournament was postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)
Italy see themselves as the underdogs as most watch from afar (Photo: Getty/Antonio Masiello)

Roberto Mancini was appointed in 2018 and vowed to lead Italy to another international title. “We all thought he was mad at the time,” Paolo Tomaselli, a football journalist for newspaper Corriere della Sera, tells i. “Either that or he was just trying to lift the team’s spirits.” 

But the manager has successfully rebuilt a youthful team founded on defensive rigour and attacking ruthlessness to record a current 14 consecutive wins. “Mancini set the bar high, and stayed true to his vision,” Tomaselli says.

Thursday’s newspapers were full of fighting talk following England’s victory over Denmark, with La Stampa predicting “a future full of gold” and La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy’s biggest sports newspaper, claiming backing from Uefa had helped England reach the final.

But such bravura masks national vulnerability, according to Tomaselli. “We feel like the underdogs – we always do. Italians will never tell you privately we are going to win,” he says.

Playing at Wembley gives the home team “an extra percentage point”, Monaco says. While Uefa has reserved 6,500 tickets for Italian expats in Britain and will allow 1,000 fans to fly in from Italy on chartered flights, England supporters will form the majority of Wembley’s expected 67,000 crowd. 

But La Gazzetta dello Sport predicts Italians could double their expected turnout to 15,000, and Guerrera agrees.

“The Italian community in Britain is enormous,” he says. “There could be a bigger sea of blue at Wembley than England bargains for.”

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