Mattia Caldara played through a thigh injury as Italy beat Germany to face Spain in the European Under-21 Championship. “There are some games you cannot miss.”
The Azzurrini’s hopes were hanging by a thread after the 3-1 defeat to the Czech Republic, but Federico Bernardeschi’s goal allowed them to beat Germany and Denmark’s victory over the Czechs was also decisive.
Mattia Caldara played through a thigh injury as Italy beat Germany to face Spain in the European Under-21 Championship. “There are some games you cannot miss.”
The Azzurrini’s hopes were hanging by a thread after the 3-1 defeat to the Czech Republic, but Federico Bernardeschi’s goal allowed them to beat Germany and Denmark’s victory over the Czechs was also decisive.
“We are happy after two frankly horrible days. We wanted this so much, we were aware of our strengths and that we could put in a great performance tonight,” the Atalanta defender told Rai Sport.
“I had a little problem in the flexor muscle, but there are games you cannot miss and this was one of them, so I pushed through it."
Germany go on to face England, while Italy take on Spain on Tuesday evening.
“Now we have a difficult semi-final against Spain, it will certainly be complicated, but we’ll try to play our game and see what happens.
“We spoke among ourselves after the game, because we knew that that team we saw wasn’t us. We all had our say, cleared the air and knew we had to win tonight.
“Then Denmark did us a favour, so we thank them for that! The Coach tells us that to win, you need all 23 players to be going in the same direction and working as one, even when they are on the bench.”