Call it intimidating. Call it the warning light on your dashboard. Call it a reminder not to believe your own hype. Call it an opportunity to assess what's wrong and what needs to be fixed.
Call it football. Because, as the saying goes, every game starts from 0-0. You get a chance to write your own story, and what happened before that is largely irrelevant. Of course, until you learn from your struggles. And Italy, despite winning 2-1 in extra time to advance Austria, will have much to learn.
Austria came in their Wembley round-of-16 game as an underdog after a group stage, which saw them defeat the team they expected in North Macedonia, lose to the team they hoped to beat in the Netherlands, and That team was defeated, supposedly close to their level, in an actual playoff for second place against Ukraine. Roughly "B-student" fare, meeting expectations to write home about.
Yet they fought Italy until the fifth minute of extra time and, but for two close VAR calls (both correct, but in a VAR-less universe, who knows?), might even be the better of them. how? By applying the lessons of Italy's opponents in the group stage, with more intensity and more nuance, only doing better than them. While the likes of Turkey, Switzerland and Wales had captured and defended deeply, looking for counter-attack opportunities that never came, Austria's approach was somewhat different. They were also set deep at times, but, in possession, were clever to push as a unit, keeping the ball (it is no coincidence that Italy only captured 52 to 48 percent). And Marcel was doing it with quality through the likes of Sabitzer. , Christoph Baumgartner and, when he was joined by an elaborate position, David Alaba.
The approach somewhat did not prepare Roberto Mancini. In the third group stage game, Italy had already qualified, having taken eight regular rests. In this game he went with the same XI that looked great in the two opening games, with one exception: Marco Verratti, who was not fully fit at the start of the tournament, came in for Manuel Locatelli. Italy still created chances in the first half - Ciro Immobil hit the post, Leonardo Spinazola scored some dazzling runs followed by a poor finish, Nicolo Barella forced a good kick save from Daniel Bachmann - but Austria never Didn't look surprised either.
Italy could have been more unpredictable by adding another playwright such as Verratti with Jorginho, but instead the build-up slowed the game on several occasions. In particular, since Baumgartner, Sabitzer and, at times, Florian Grillitsch entered their grills and pressed them so intensely that the Swiss and Turks could not manage in the first tournament. The front three - who, as a group, were an off-knight - ended the ball a little later, losing the half-step of space that is sometimes the difference between a beaten man or an assistant.
Mancini stuck to his guns at the break, made no changes, and had another scare at the start of the second half. A mistake by Leonardi Bonucci freed Marko Arnatovic from goal. The well-travelled forward may be inconsistent, but when he's on his game he's as shock resistant as an aggressive weed and as light on his toes as an Irish dancer. Francesco Acerbi did well to counteract his annoyance and Shami, reacting but cutting completely and never going away, and it ended with a scraping diagonal off the mark.
Shortly thereafter, after being deflected by Bonucci, Sabitzer's shot tarnished his own target, though it trickled into the wider part of the post. Then came an Arnautovic dinked header that removed Gianluigi Donnarumma and ended in goal, only to be disallowed after a VAR eternity for a tight offside. Despite more relaxations, Italy was running out of steam. Verratti and Barella went out, Locatelli and Matteo Pescina came in. Still, the tide didn't turn and, in fact, Pessina almost handed a penalty after pulling Stefan Lanner down: saved by VAR, again, as Lanner was clearly offside.
As the game went into extra time, it was Austria who had full confidence. His game plan was validated. Italy was facing some domestic reality. And the fact that, with a few minutes to go in 90, he had broken his 47-year-old record for the longest run without conceding a goal, if he didn't fix things. Wasn't very comforting.
Mancini turned to Andrea Belotti, aka "Il Gallo" or "Rooster" and Federico Chiesa, the footballer of Blue Bloods, whose father, Enrico, is one of Italy's all-time greats. Those will prove to be important changes.
Mancini said after the match, "Maybe we could have scored in the first half, but then we fell physically flat, so if we win we will be indebted to the players who came." "They not only brought the energy, they brought the right mindset and the right mindset to read the game."
Five minutes into extra time, a dangerous ball from Spinazola, as reliable and dangerous as his previous start, Chiesa found at the far post. He lowered it, controlled it with one foot and finished with the other, all in one quick, continuous motion. Afterwards, he added: "I take pride in how I stayed calm and focused on controlling the ball and then finishing. I had to fight the tendency to hit it first and rush it."
Unlike Italy teams of the past, they did it knowing that, at 1–0, it was better to try and score a second, than to try and accept the equalizer. It's a simple theorem backed up by the data - a bit like NFL teams should go fourth for it, which they really do - but it's also one that counters 100 years of football dogma, especially Italy. In.
And it's to Mancini's credit that he managed to change that mindset. Sure enough, he made it two at the end of the first extra time period, with Pessina squeezing the ball in front of Bachchan after an insistent build-up. Austria did not relent. A vicious shot from substitute Louis Schaub forced an excellent save from Donnarumma and another deputy, Sasa Kalajadzik, pulled one back as he rammed into the near post, slamming his 6-foot-5 frame into that position. View from a contraption at the Cirque de Soleil and squeeze a header behind Jorginho and Donnarumma from an impossible angle.
It turned out to be a consolation goal, and it was at least what Austria deserved after an exceptional performance. It was a reality check for Italy. As Acerby said after the game: "We got so much compliments after the group stages, that it might have inadvertently affected us. Confidence is important, but you need to get just the right amount."
For Mancini, the relief was evident on his face as he hugged his longtime friend and former teammate, Gianluca Vialli, who is now part of the Italian FA staff.
"We knew it was going to be tough and it really was," he said. "Maybe, it's more difficult than waiting for us in the quarter-finals."
He will know what awaits by Sunday night after Portugal play Belgium. Whether the opponent will be really tough will depend on what he learned about himself at Wembley against Austria.