‘I will remember this night forever’

After squeezing past Austria in extra-time to reach the Euro 2020 quarter-finals, Italy coach Roberto Mancini said he had expected Saturday's clash to be more challenging than their next tie against either Belgium or Portugal.

In their bid to return to Wembley for the final on July 11 and lift their first European Championship trophy since 1968, Mancini has already used 25 of his 26 players, showing the depth and breadth of talent available as his side drew on the collective to reach the quarter-finals.

Mancini was also upbeat against his next challenge. The leading strikers of Italy's next potential opponents, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Belgium's Romelu Lukaku, will be familiar to Mancini's players as they play their club football in Serie A with Juventus and Inter Milan respectively.

But Mancini would not be drawn into saying which player he would rather avoid in the next round in Munich. "When you get into the quarter-finals, it is not that easy. Ideally we would like to avoid both, but that is not possible," he said.

Italy were big favourites to progress after winning all three group games but they were far from their free-flowing best as they edged Franco Foda's side to book a last-eight showdown against Belgium or Portugal.

Substitute Federico Chiesa carried on a slice of family history when he struck in Italy's 2-1 extra-time win over Austria. The 23-year-old, whose strike was added to by fellow substitute Matteo Pessina to complete the victory, is the son of former Italy striker Enrico Chiesa who scored against the Czech Republic in Euro '96 at Liverpool's Anfield ground.

However, while Chiesa Sr's side bowed out at the group stage in that tournament, Federico and his team mates are on their way to a quarter-final in Munich.

Matteo Pessina came off the bench to score an all important goal and all anyone could talk about was his faceplant celebration. The Atalanta midfielder ran towards the corner of the pitch before falling flat on his face and sliding across the turf.

Pessina said he 'hasn't yet realized' he scored the winner for Italy against Austria. 'I will remember this night forever.'

SWITZERLAND V FRANCE

Switzerland will aim to produce a shock of seismic proportions during their clash against France in front of up to 25,000 spectators at the National Arena in Bucharest tonight. If they are to progress to the quarter-finals then they will have to stop France's talented array of attackers- Karim Benzema, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe. Benzema is in a good form but Mbappe is still struggling to find his shooting boots.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

At Euro: Played-2, France won-1, Switzerland won-0, Drawn-1.

Overall: Played-38, France won-16, Switzerland won-12, Drawn-10..

SPAIN V CROATIA

Spain have finally clicked into gear after a sloppy start but will face their sternest test yet in the last 16 from Croatia, led by a sensational Luka Modric who keeps raging against the dying of the light "He is their motor, the heartbeat of Croatia who conducts their orchestra. All their play goes through his feet," Spain forward Dani Olmo said. "But Croatia is not just Modric."

HEAD-TO-HEAD

At Euro: Played-2, Spain won-1, Croatia won-1, Drawn-0

Overall: Played-8, Spain won-4, Croatia won-3, Drawn-1