England have reached their first major tournament final in 55 years after beating Denmark in the second Euro 2020 semi-final on Wednesday evening.
The Three Lions had to wait until extra-time to beat the Danes thanks to Harry Kane’s quick reaction to Kasper Schmeichel’s penalty save. The Tottenham Hotspur forward fired home the rebound in the 104th minute.
Gareth Southgate’s side will face a strong Italy at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, who are led by former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini.
The Italian, who has been in charge of his home nation since May 2018, has guided his team to the final after beating former champions Spain 4-2 on penalties in their semi-final clash on Tuesday.
Mancini has had a fantastic tenure in charge of Italy, going almost three years without losing a game. Their last defeat was against Euro 2016 winners Portugal in September 2018 - only his second loss as manager.
The game will see two of Europe’s top nations battle it out for the Henri Delaunay Trophy, with England looking to win their first Euros, while Italy are pursuing their second victory in the competition.
If it’s anything like both nation’s semi-final clashes we could be in for a long night. Kick-off is scheduled for 8pm and available to watch on both BBC and ITV.
Southgate has altered his starting XI numerous times during the tournament, with the 50-year-old also playing two formations so far. The most commonly used layout is 4-2-3-1, with the Three Lions boss opting to use this system in five of their six games so far.
However, we have also seen Southgate deploy a 3-4-3 formation against rivals Germany in the Round of 16. England won the game 2-0 that night.
Mancini has stayed true to his initial tactics using the 4-3-3 formation for all six of Italy’s matches.
There are huge decisions to be made from both country’s managers. Their choice of who will fill the substitutes bench is equally important as the 11 names starting the game.
With that being said, here’s all you need to know about how many substitutions both Southgate and Mancini have at their disposal on Sunday evening.
Uefa announced in March that Euro 2020 would be the first major tournament that would allow five substitutions in normal time.
This decision was made in order to relieve the impact of game-time on each player, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, and after just finishing their domestic seasons only a couple of months ago. The use of five substitutions was also used in the Champions League last year.
In addition, each nation’s boss has the opportunity to make a sixth substitution as well. This however can only be made if the game reaches extra-time.
Wednesday’s semi-final between England and Denmark saw the latter utilise this new rule, with Kasper Hjulmand making five changes in normal time. The 49-year-old then made his sixth and final substitution in the final moments of the first-half of added time, bringing Jonas Wind on for Jannik Vestergaard.
