Juventus winger on as a substitute pierces dense fog of attrition with a goal to bring the Azzurri’s Euros back to life
There was no sense of inevitability as the ball landed at Federico Chiesa’s feet. No real feeling of grace. An agonising, attritional 95 minutes of football had seen to all that. Like tired boxers in a 13th round, Italy and Austria were simply circling each other, waiting to see whose legs gave way first. The awkward high bounce, forcing Chiesa to control the ball with his head to prevent it from going out of play, simply reinforced the notion of a game in which nothing had worked and nothing would work.
And then in a shuffle and a swing of the left boot the ball was burying itself in the Austria net, and Chiesa was being buried in a flurry of blue shirts, and in a fleeting instant Italy’s Euros were alive again.
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