Italy ease past Czech Republic; Spain goalless with Portugal

With the European Championships just a week away, some of the competition’s biggest nations are getting their preparations in order.

Let’s take a look at how four of them got on this evening.

Italy 4-0 Czech Republic

Scorers: Immobile 23′, Barella 42′, Insigne 65′, Berardi 76′

Italy named what many considered their strongest XI here in Bologna and got off to the perfect start as Ciro Immobile bagged yet another international goal on 23 minutes.

The Azzurri looked assured in possession and made plenty of chances, and they eventually doubled their lead on the brink of half time as Nicolò Barella hit a deflected into the bottom left-hand corner from the edge of the area.

Roberto Mancini’s side came out in the second half with an equal amount of verve and should have added a third on the hour mark were it not for Giorgio Chiellini’s wild finishing.

But they did eventually get a third as Lorenzo Insigne raced on to an Immobile through ball and finished well and then Domenico Berardi got a fourth thanks to an easy close-range strike.

Spain 0-0 Portugal

Scorers: N/A

Both sides names strong starting XIs in front of a vociferous crowd at the Metropolitano.

But it was the home side who really should have opened the scoring in the first half as Ferran Torres latched on to an Alvaro Morata cross, but planted his header just wide.

Into the second half and Portugal thought they had a shout for a penalty early on but the referee waved away calls after what looked like a Marcos Llorente hand ball.

La Roja were still very much bossing proceedings though and really should have scored on the hour mark only for Morata to shank an effort wide from 15 yards out and then hit the crossbar in added time.

And Luis Enrqiue’s men would rue those missed chances as the game ended in a goalless draw.