Finnish Lina Lehtovaara was the referee in the 1–1 draw between Italy and Iceland. Iceland was to surprise Italy and leave the boot country at zero again.
Finnish judge Lina Lehtovaara sentenced Italy and Iceland to a 1-1 draw in the European football championships on Thursday.
Lehtovaara was firm in his decision-making and the cooperation with his colleagues worked seamlessly. For example, the video review of Italy’s equalizer took only a moment, unlike many other similar situations in this tournament.
Lehtovaara tries to perform as well as possible, because after the group stage, only some of the judges continue to the playoffs.
See the goal summary of the match in the video below.
Iceland have played two 1-1 draws in the opening group and are therefore second in their group before Thursday night’s France-Belgium match. From the initial group, the two best teams in the group advance to the playoffs.
Italy is again on one point after losing to France in their opening match.
In the first period, Iceland buried the ball in Italy’s nets for their first scoring chance of the match. The sideline throw was lobbed long into the penalty area, where the ball bounced through two Italian players Karólína to Lea Vilhjálmsdóttir.
– Italy’s defense in the box was bad and they lost the second ball. Flaminia Simonetti missed his own player when the ball fell into the back area, from where the ball was put into the goal, Urheilu’s expert Liisa-Maija Rautio evaluate.
Iceland got a few more halves, but then Italy took control of the game. To the dismay of the football giant, the striker Martina Piemonte missed Italy’s best goal chance, so Iceland went into the break in the lead.
– A really broken half as a result of fouls and other interruptions. It helped Iceland, expert Jonne Kunnas said.
Iceland was close to doubling their lead in the 60th minute of the match, when Italy scored again in their own penalty area. Entered the field from the exchange Alexandra Jóhannsdóttir however, missed his shot.
Italy went on the counter-attack while the replays of Iceland’s goal were still being replayed. A pass from the left in front of the goal, from which Valentina Bergamaschi scored a 1–1 equalizer.
Italy came alive and were dangerous, especially on the counter-attack. With about a quarter of an hour left in the match, Italy got two top spots. However, Iceland survived both with a bang.
The rest of the match was dominated by Italy, but Iceland survived without a setback. Iceland also got a top spot from the counterattack, but a bad shot missed the Italian goal. So the match ended 1–1.
Like the France match, Italy had big problems defending their own penalty area.
– In the days in between, they certainly practiced that thing, but in defense there was still such an atmosphere that everyone wants to win the ball. But then we run (without thinking) towards the ball and lose the players, expert Kunnas said.