Italy recovered from a man and a goal down to beat Zambia 3-2 in extra time and set up an Under-20 World Cup semifinal against England on Monday.
Things looked bleak for the Azzurri , who had gone behind to Patson Daka’s early goal, when Giuseppe Pezzella was sent off for a shove following a video review just before half-time.
But Riccardo Orsolini scored five minutes after the restart and even when Fashion Sakala struck in the 84th minute, substitute Federico Dimarco’s 88th-minute free-kick sent the game into extra time. Kenneth Kalunga narrowly missed after skilfully juggling the ball past Italy’s defence, before another Italian substitute, Luca Vido, headed the decisive goal from a Dimarco corner in the 111th minute.
The late strike knocked out Zambia, sending last year’s Under-19 European finalist into a last four meeting with England, which downed Mexico 1-0.
The results:
Quarterfinals: Italy 3 (Orsolini 50, Dimarco 88, Vido 111) bt Zambia 2 (Daka 4, Sakala 84) after extra time; Mexico 0 lost to England 1 (Solanke 47).
Venezuela 2 (Penaranda 96, Ferraresi 115) bt USA 1 (Ebobisse 117) after extra time; Portugal 2 (Xande Silva 1, D. Goncalves 41) drew with Uruguay 2 (S. Bueno 16, F. Valverde 50-pen). Uruguay won on penalties (5-4).
