AS the banners being paraded by the Italians fans outside Wembley last night proclaimed: “Football’s Coming Rome”.

Despite having been second best for long periods of their semi-final against Spain, Roberto Mancini’s Italian side found a way through, triumphing on penalties after conceding with ten minutes left in a 1-1 draw.

It is 33 games since Italy last suffered a defeat, a run that stretches all the way back to September 2018 and a loss to a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired Portugal. If England’s players can see off Denmark this evening to book their first appearance in a European Championship final, they will almost certainly have to go up at least another couple of gears to win it.

Leading through Federico Chiesa’s second-half strike, Italy were pegged back when Alvaro Morata came off the bench to haul Spain level. Suffice to say, the Spaniard’s night was to go downhill from there.

Italy launched a series of counter-attacking raids in extra-time, but were forced to spend most of the extra 30 minutes defending in their own 18-yard box. Never mind. With the timeless Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci at the heart of their back four, it is what they seem to enjoy doing best.

Even when the Italians missed their first penalty in the shootout, with Unai Simon saving from Manuel Locatelli, their steely resolve still made them the likelier winners. Sure enough, while Italy’s next four penalties were all scored, Spain missed through Dani Olmo and the seemingly cursed Morata, whose form in the earlier rounds of the tournament had seen him abused by his own supporters on social media. One imagines the Spanish fans were not any kinder last night.

It might seem a strange thing to say about a team that scored ten goals in two matches against Croatia and Slovakia, but if Spain could only hit the back of the net, they would be unbeatable. Their midfield three was the best at the tournament, with Sergio Busquets anchoring things in front of the back four, enabling Koke and Pedri to float around popping off passes and threading through balls into the box.

Pedri is frighteningly good given that he does not turn 19 until November, and while he has already announced his arrival into the Barcelona first team with a considerable fanfare, he is only going to improve as he gains more international and Champions League experience. It has not taken the Spaniards long to find a worthy successor to Andres Iniesta and Xavi.

Luis Enrique’s problem is that his forwards are nowhere near the standard of those playing behind them. Morata was dropped last night, but in his absence, Olmo and Mikel Oyarzabal picked up where their fellow forward had left off.

Oyarzabal got behind the Italian defence in the 13th minute, only to fail to get a shot away as the ball got stuck under his feet, and blazed a dreadful effort over the crossbar shortly before half-time. Olmo was equally ineffective as he shot wide from 20 yards, although he did at least force a first-half save from Gianluigi Donnarumma with a low strike the Italian goalkeeper clawed away to his right.

That was Donnarumma’s only scare before the break, so for all that Italy’s players were starved of possession for much of the evening, they were actually the side that went closest to breaking the deadlock on a number of occasions.

Nicola Barella chipped a deflected third-minute effort against the post, albeit from an offside position that eventually resulted in the flag being raised, but Italy struck the woodwork in legitimate fashion on the stroke of half-time.

Lorenzo Insigne, whose purposeful running troubled the Spanish defence all night, rolled an overlapping Emerson Palmieri into the left of the area, and the Chelsea full-back fired in an angled drive that clipped the crossbar.

Earlier, Emerson, who proved a capable replacement for the injured Leonardo Spinazzola, had caught Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simon out of position, only for his ball infield to be squandered by a combination of Insigne and Ciro Immobile.

Italy’s chief attacking weapon was the speed of their breaks, and that was the key to the move that broke the deadlock on the hour mark. Donnarumma’s quick throw sparked a lightning-fast attack that saw Italy’s forwards breaking across the halfway line before the Spanish defence had begun to reorganise.

Insigne released Immobile, and while the striker was just about snuffed out by a combination of Eric Garcia and Aymeric Laporte, the ball broke kindly for Chiesa. The 23-year-old, son of Italian great Enrico, had scored a crucial extra-time goal in Italy’s Wembley win over Austria, and he found his range again, curling a fantastic finish into the bottom corner.

Enrique called for the cavalry, sending on Morata and Gerard Moreno, and the former delivered an equaliser with ten minutes left. Having been released behind the Italian defence, Morata slotted a slick finish past Donnarumma. Crucially, he was not to prove as effective from the spot.