Joselu scored with two minutes left to give Spain a 2-1 victory over Italy on Thursday, setting up a championship match against Croatia in the Nations League.
After a close match in Enschede, Luis de la Fuente’s team came out on top to go to Sunday’s final, where Zlatko Dalic’s squad will be waiting after they defeated the Dutch on Wednesday.
After just three minutes, Yeremy Pino put La Roja up with a goal. However, Ciro Immobile scored from the penalty spot to tie the game, and extra time appeared inevitable until Joselu nudged home a winner.
De la Fuente, who was highly criticized following a defeat to Scotland in March and was just in his second game as manager, felt some relief after this triumph.
Joselu, who has scored three goals in three games since making his debut under the new coach, capitalized on a deflection of Rodri Hernandez’s shot while remaining onside.
The 33-year-old striker scored 16 goals for Espanyol in La Liga despite his team’s relegation.
Jesus Navas, who at 37 became Spain’s oldest player, said Spanish network TVE, “I am very happy for everyone, the group and the coach deserve it.”
We played hard and are really happy and proud of ourselves for making it to the championship game.
This is the path to success, and it was fought for and won magnificently.
At De Grolsch Veste, De la Fuente started new “signing” Robin Le Normand with another French center defender, Aymeric Laporte.
Manchester City’s Rodri, who scored the game-winning goal in the Champions League final against Inter Milan, and the club’s other defender were both in attendance.
Despite Leonardo Bonucci’s shaky season with Juventus, Mancini started the experienced center back in a 3-man defense.
Bonucci, Italy’s captain, was robbed by Gavi and Yeremy Pino on the outside of his own box, and Pino drove into the box and shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma as a result.
But the Azzurri promptly tied the score when Le Normand saved a shot by Nicolo Zaniolo.
Ciro Immobile, who had not played for the team since their disastrous World Cup play-off loss to North Macedonia in March 2022, converted the penalty.
David Frattesi, a midfielder for Sassuolo, seemed to score Italy’s second goal when he latched onto Jorginho’s pass and buried the ball past Unai Simon, who started in goal instead of Kepa Arrizabalaga, but the goal was disallowed for offside.
With Spain playing on the counterattack and ready to go long to reach the Atletico Madrid striker, the 40th “Mediterranean derby” was an end-to-end affair. Alvaro Morata forced Donnarumma into a superb stop down to his right.
Spain won Euro 2020 after defeating Italy in the semifinals on penalties, but they were beaten 4-0 by Italy in the 2021 Nations League final.
Advances in Spain
After Bonucci’s early incident, Mancini substituted Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian from Inter Milan at halftime.
Spain came out stronger, and Morata had a chance to put La Roja back in front after Donnarumma denied Mikel Merino, but his shot from the turn was just wide.
After his amazing performance in Istanbul, Rodri nearly scored again, but his acrobatic attempt went just wide.
Simon made a great stop to keep out Fratessi’s close-range attempt as Italy responded.
Due to fatigue from the lengthy season, the last half hour went at a glacial pace.
Mancini substituted Juve striker Federico Chiesa, while De la Fuente brought on Ansu Fati and Joselu to add to the assault.
Joselu, one of the players De la Fuente can call his own, scored the game-winning goal, giving De la Fuente a double boost by sending Spain to the final in Rotterdam.
“Even if they scored late, Spain deserved the win,” Mancini remarked of Spain.
“I think it cost us in the end because we tried some new tactics.”