Lorenzo Insigne was named Man of the Match as Italy beat Belgium 2-1, describes his goal and reveals the mood in the locker room at half-time of this UEFA EURO 2020 quarter-final.

The Napoli captain curled in one of trademark right-foot strikes from distance, after Nicolò Barella had opened the scoring, while Romelu Lukaku converted a penalty for Belgium.

“It’s wonderful, but aside from the award, I am happy that we reached the semi-final. We work as a team and must continue like this, as we could achieve great things together,” Insigne told RAI Sport.

“I saw Youri Tielemans in front of me, he was already on a yellow card, so I knew I could run at him. I then saw the gap and went for it.”

There was tension on the stroke of half-time when Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s small nudge on Jeremy Doku resulted in a penalty.

Insigne was asked about the locker room atmosphere during the break.

“The coach told us to stay calm, as even though it wasn’t a penalty, we couldn’t turn back time or do anything about it now. We kept playing the same way and brought the win home.”

Italy will face Spain in the semi-final on Tuesday at Wembley Stadium, but Leonardo Spinazzola won’t play again this tournament, as he’s reportedly dealing with a torn Achilles tendon.

“What distinguishes us from the other teams is that we sacrifice ourselves for each other in the team and that is what we must continue doing, as it’ll take us far.

“Now we’ll try to recover some energy and be ready for Spain on Tuesday.”

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