On June 30, Beijing time, the quarterfinals of the European Cup began, and the first game was played by Switzerland against the defending champion Italy. In this game, the Swiss team scored one goal in each half, defeated Italy 2-0, and the defending champions stopped in the round of 16, and the game process was even more humiliating.
In terms of world rankings, Italy is ninth and Switzerland is 19th, but the rankings do not reflect the true strength of the two sides. In the group stage, Italy defeated Spain in the first game, defeated Albania in the second game, and was once forced into a desperate situation by Croatia in the life-and-death battle, and finally qualified for the second place in Group B with Zaccagni's thrilling draw. In contrast, Switzerland are much more relaxed, although they are also second in Group A, they are unbeaten with one win and two draws, and they also drew with hosts Germany in the final round, and they are in hot form. In terms of starters, the Swiss team Embolo, Xhaka and Akanji formed the central axis, and Italy's Donnarumma led the game.
In the first half, Spalletti's change of formation collapsed himself, and the left side of Shaarawy and Darmian obviously could not work a miracle, and the Italian team was paralyzed in attack, with 1 shot and 0 on target in the half. To make matters worse, what was once a reinforced concrete defense is now as empty as a corridor. In the 24th minute, Embolo had a single chance and was saved by Donnarumma, and the Italian defense sounded the alarm. However, the Italian goal was still lost in the 37th minute, Vargas crossed, and Fruller stopped the ball in the box and volleyed into the goal, giving Switzerland a 1-0 lead. At half-time, Reid's free-kick was met and Donnarumma saved the game again and bounced off the post. At half-time, Italy trailed by 1 goal.
In the second half, Italy was hit by a 27-second blitzkrieg, and the forward pass after the kick-off was tackled by Switzerland, Switzerland advanced quickly, and Vargas scored a goal with a world wave shot, and the score came to 2-0, and Italy was in a desperate situation. In the 63rd minute, Italy made a substitution, removing Barella and replacing it with center forward Retegui. Eight minutes later, the Swiss brought on Zubair and Stegio to defend. In the 74th minute, Scamacca hit the post from a tight angle, and Italy missed a good chance. Chiesa's explosive shot in stoppage time went wide to end Italy's outrageous performance throughout the game. In the end, Switzerland defeated Italy 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.
After this match, Switzerland became the first team to advance to the quarter-finals of the European Championship, where they will await the winner of England and Slovakia. With Switzerland's current performance, the semi-finals and even the final are no fool's dream, after all, the favourites England have been a disaster in the group stage, and Slovakia's ceiling is limited. On top of that, all the favourites are in the top half, so could Switzerland be the dark horse in the bottom half? We'll see.