This is a special Italy side. Not only have they reached the semi-finals of Euro 2020 in a remarkable response to their generational low in World Cup qualifier in 2017, but they have done it with a vibrant, vivacious swagger the like of which so few Italian teams of years gone by have adopted.
Their 2-1 win over Belgium in Friday’s quarter-final in Munich saw them take their biggest scalp yet in this swashbuckling attempt to repay a nation which so recently was reeling from World Cup heartbreak with a first European Championship title in 53 years.