Italy to face Portugal in Under-19 European Championship final
Thursday 26 July 2018 22:26, UK
Italy beat France 2-0 in the semi-finals of the Under-19 European Championship to set up a final with Portugal on Sunday.
France had won 5-0 in both of their previous games - including against England - but wasted a number of good chances against Italy.
And they were punished as Christian Capone and Moise Kean scored in the first half to secure victory.
England fail to make U20 World Cup
"We had so many opportunities to score but at the end of the day we didn't deserve to win because we couldn't score a goal," said France coach Bernard Diomede.
"We are really disappointed because in the last two games we scored a lot of goals but we couldn't score today."
Portugal eased into the final after a first-half blitz secured a 5-0 victory over Ukraine.
Pedro Correia gave Portugal the lead after just two minutes before Joao Filipe struck in the 19th and 21st minute.
Trincao Francisco followed up with another quickfire double around the half-hour mark to put the result beyond doubt.
"We were very efficient but I didn't expect it to be 5-0 after 30 minutes," said Portugal coach Helio Sousa.
"We had this belief that we could win. We play every game like a final and we now just have one more final."
England were beaten 3-0 by Norway in the play-off for the Under-20 World Cup earlier in the day.
