Lorenzo Insigne celebrates scoring a goal for Italy against Belgium at Euro 2020
Lorenzo Insigne scored a stunner as Italy knocked out Belgium.
Getty/Alex Grimm
  • Euro 2020's quarterfinals saw Spain, Italy, Denmark, and England all progress to the last four.
  • Spain beat Switzerland on penalties, while Italy knocked out Belgium.
  • Denmark bested the Czech Republic and England thrashed Ukraine.
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The Euro 2020 quarterfinals saw the world's best team crash out, a goal of the tournament contender, and one of the worst penalty shoot-outs ever.

The action began on Friday when Spain beat Switzerland at Russia's Gazprom Arena.

Spain went ahead in just the eighth minute when Jordi Alba's long range shot deflected off Switzerland midfielder Denis Zakaria and into his own net.

Xherdan Shaqiri equalized in the second half to take the tie to extra time, where neither side could find a winner.

In the resulting shoot-out, Switzerland missed three to all but hand Spain – which missed two spot kicks of its own – its ticket to the last four.

On Friday evening, high-flying Italy then produced a masterclass performance to eliminate the world's number one ranked team, Belgium.

Roberto Mancini's side soared into a 2-0 lead on the night courtesy of a fine finish from Nicolo Barella and a goal of the tournament contender from Lorenzo Insigne.

Napoli's Insigne had picked the ball up in his own half when he decided to drive at the Belgium defence. As they backed off, he curled a superb effort into the top corner of Thibaut Courtois' net.

Though Belgium pulled one back from the penalty spot through Romelu Lukaku in the second half, it was unable to find an equalizer as Italy set up shop and ran the clock down.

For the final 21 minutes of the match, Italy ensured the ball was only in-play for nine minutes as its players committed fouls and spent extended periods of time on the floor.

"We were seeing a different side of Italy. Bodies behind the ball and defending deeply," BBC pundit Chris Sutton said of the performance. "It was a different Italian side to what we have seen earlier in the tournament, it was back to the old guard - they were so impressive.

Saturday was equally as exciting

In Saturday's first quarterfinal match, high flying Denmark beat the Czech Republic 2-1.

Midfielder Thomas Delaney headed the Danes in front in just the fifth minute, before Kasper Dolberg doubled its advantage just prior to half-time.

Patrick Schick scored his fifth of the competition to pull one back for the Czech's after the break, but Denmark held on to reach the last four of the European championships for the first time in almost 30 years.

After the game, Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand dedicated the victory to Christian Eriksen, who suffered an on-field cardiac arrest in his country's opening match of the tournament.

"I am still thinking of Christian every single day. He should have been here," said Hjulmand.

"We are happy that he survived. We carry him all the way to this match and all the way to Wembley. I think about him all of the time."

In the last of the quarterfinal matches, England beat Ukraine 4-0 thanks to a brace from Harry Kane and goals from Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson.

England faces Denmark in the semifinals on Wednesday, while Spain plays Italy on Tuesday.

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