Spain were ‘superior’ to Italy in Euro 2020 semi-final defeat, Sergio Busquets insists

Spain were “superior” to Italy despite their defeat in the semi-finals of Euro 2020, midfielder Sergio Busquets has said.

Italy advanced to the final on penalties after the match finished 1-1 in extra-time, with Jorginho scoring the decisive spot-kick following misses from Alvaro Morata and Dani Olmo.

The Azzurri took the lead through Federico Chiesa’s second-half goal and were tipped to reach the Wembley final after being the only team remaining in the last-four to win all their games in the tournament.

But Spain responded through Morata’s 80th-minute equaliser, and Luis Enrique’s side were impressive as performances from youngsters such as Pedri pointed to a bright future.

“Everyone made Italy big favourites here, but we demonstrated that we were superior to them,” Busquets said.

“We played with a lot of young footballers and this whole experience will have served to give them a lot of confidence. This team will be back.

“We imposed the things we wanted to here, owning the ball, winning it back as quickly as possible. In general across this match I think we were the dominant side. But football’s like this, and all we can do is congratulate Italy.

“There’s a year-and-a-half until the next World Cup but we are on the right road, for sure. This is a great national team and the only thing missing was getting to the final, as we were determined to.”

Spain were aiming to reach the final of a major tournament for the first time since 2012 after failing to progress further than the round of 16 in each of their last three competitions.