LONDON: Jorginho stood in front of the mass rank of Italian fans, straightened his back and took a breath.
Everyone from them knows what will happen.
So, too, whether Unai Simon, Spanish goalkeeper, nervous and flashing with nerve energy in the line.
Some are inevitable about Jorginho and penalty.
He approached the ball by running softly.
Halfway there, he did a little hop, a short stutter designed to captivate the goalkeeper to shift his legs.
The movement is almost invisible, twitch a little, all Jorginho needs.
That’s the point when he knows the side of the net which will be proven beyond the reach of the goalkeeper.
From there, it’s simple.
It seems like that, of course, even under all the pressure on the Euro 2020 semifinals Tuesday: one ball attack, after two hours of sweating and thunder and tension and tension, to send his team, to the final.
Unless he doesn’t hit him.
He discussed it.
He pointed it.
He caresses it.
It’s the same at any time.
But only because you know something will come doesn’t mean you can do anything.
Italy hasn’t played for the last three weeks stereotypes.
They arrived at the 2020 euro in a strange position, unbeaten in 27 matches, ran back several years, but not among the favorites.
France, England, Portugal and Belgium are all under more pressure.
Whatever happened, Roberto Mancini, Italian coach, swore that it would be “fun.” He was as good as his Word, for those who were the first time at least.
Turkey, Switzerland and Wales were swept aside, in the area of ​​origin, in Rome.
Austria is, finally, controlled in the round of 16.
Brilliant spells 15 or 20 minutes take the Mancini team past Belgium, officially ranked as the best side of the world.
It is Italy which is stripped of pressure expectations, and imbued with freedom.
But it was not a sense of adventure, which was just implanted and deliberately maintained the spirit of Gioia in Vivere, which allowed Italy to take the final step.
Spain, even the iteration that keeps working in the process, always tends to require what diplomatic appearance is called more Italian virtues: compliance and indociality, organization and deception.
This might rank as Mancini’s biggest achievement, in the three years responsible for its national team, that he has managed to maintain those properties while reducing Italian dependence on them.
Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci still greeted clogged shots and interception of pickpockets with the same innocent pleasure, they might have celebrated the offside trap well as children.
Where Mancini won was that he had made Italian choice from the last attempt, rather than the whole strategy.
His team prefers to defeat his opponents.
But if it’s not possible, it is more than happy to live with Johan Cruyff’s afforism and make sure it is no less than them.
So, while this is not the type of performance that with it the new Italian will stir the soul, it is one of the old ones being proud.