Italy’s Lorenzo Insigne made us reminense on the days of Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio and Alexandre Del Piero with a magnificent display and a goal to boot against Switzerland on Friday night.
The Napoli forward is joined by other elite European players who shone on the first evening of the Euro 2020 quarterfinals in Complete Sports Breaking News’ Combined XI as presented by Izuchukwu Okosi.
GOALKEEPER
Yann Sommer (Switzerland)
The Swiss keeper produced excellent saves especially in the second half in Switzerland’quarterfinals match against Spain. He had 71 touches of the ball.
The game ended 1-1 at full time although Spain prevailed and won the contest eventually on penalties.
DEFENDERS
Ricardo Rodriguez (Switzerland)
The Swiss left back was brilliant in his team’s game against Spain. This is arguably Rodriguez’s best game for his national team and he plays in our left side of the defence.
The defender who was in his team’s U-17 national side that defeated Nigeria to win the title when the cadet World Cup was hosted by Nigeria in 2009 made nine tackles, two interceptions, one clearance and two blocked shots.
He won two aerial duels and made one key pass.
Leonardo Spinazzola (Italy)
Spinazzola made one vital block on the goal line to deny Romelu Lukaku from getting on the scoresheet as the Belgians sought to equalise when they were 1-0 down.
Giovanni De Lorenzo (Italy)
Lorenzo was the defender who brought down Doku in the penalty area from which Romelu Lukaku scored the resultant penalty.
Aside that indiscretion however, Di Lorenzo was massive in this game. He made seven tackles, one interception, five clearances and blocked a shot on goal. He committed four fouls.
MIDFIELDERS
Jorginho (Italy)
Jorginho was one of the best players in the match between Italy and Belgium on Friday night.
The midfielders stats shows that he made one tackle, two interceptions, two clearances and one blocked shot in Italy’s win over Belgium.
The Chelsea star screened the central defence expertly and was very instrumental in shutting down the threats of Belgian forward Doku especially in the second half.
Marco Veratti (Italy)
The PSG midfielder made three key passes and had 94.4% pass accuracy in the game between Italy and Belgium.
The diminutive technician had 104 touches of the ball and assisted one of his team’s goals..
He made four tackles, one interception, one clearance and blocked one shot in the match.
Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium)
The Man City star played through the pain barriers but was still majestic in midfield in Belgium’s defeat against Italy.
He made three key passes and hit two shots, one of them on target.
Pedri (Spain)
The Barcelona youngster who was at fault for the own goal conceded by the 2008 European champions in the round of 16 game against Croatia had five tackles, two interceptions and one clearance to his credit on Friday against Switzerland.
He also made five key passes, 92 touches of the ball, 91.3% pass accuracy .
ATTACKERS
Jeremy Doku (Belgium)
The Belgian forward of African descent had one shot on target from four attempts. He made 21 passes and had 48 touches of the ball. His pace was a menace for the Italian defence.
Romelu Lukaku (Belgium)
Originally of Congo DR heritage, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku converted from the penalty spot in the 2-1 defeat to Italy.
The Inter Milan striker was however denied by a superb block by Leonardo Spinazzola in one of Belgium’s scoring chances.
Three of his four shots were on target. He won two aerial duels.
Lorenzo Insigne (Italy)
The star of the Friday quarterfinals matches, the Napoli star scored a world class goal against Belgium, the opener, that could be adjudged as one of the best goals of the tournament.
The fantastic strike was one of two shots on target from three efforts by Insigne . The Italian number 10 had 75 touches of the ball.