Italy vs Spain LIVE: Nations League result, final score and reaction tonight

9 mins: Alessandro Bastoni has a weak shot from outside the box stopped by Unai Simon. Italy aren’t allowing Spain time on the ball, they’re closing down quickly and winning back possession. Spain meanwhile remain patient in their build-up play.

6 mins: Chance! Italy try to find a way into the Spanish penalty area by attacking the left wing. Three defenders move across the box to deny them but a forward pressing Emerson manages to feed the ball to Federico Chiesa. He lets it roll across his body before drilling one at goal from outside the box. The shot is good and Unai Simon has to leap to his right to palm it away.

3 mins: Emerson slides into a tackle on Gavi to stop the youngster from driving down the right wing. The ball goes out for a Spain throw in and the visitors work the ball quickly across the pitch. Marcos Alonso receives it on the opposite wing and attempts to flick a pass over the top but gets too much of the ball and sends it out for a goal kick.

Kick off: Spain get the match underway with a long ball up the pitch. Italy win the aerial ball in midfield and send it out to Lorenzo Insigne on the left wing. He cuts inside before slotting a through ball into the box for Federico Bernardeschi to chase but the pass is too heavy and Unai Simon scoops it up.

The anthems are played. Italy’s remains glorious and it gets a rapturous round of applause from the home fans as the Italian players belt it out.

Kick off is next.

Here come the teams. Leonardo Bonucci leads out the Italian side. As usual they’re going to be defensively tough to score against tonight meaning Spain have to take the chances they create.

Sergio Busquets captains the Spanish team. Can they cause an upset and make it to the Nations League final?

The warm ups are over at the San Siro, the venue for tonight’s Nations League semi-final. Italy have not lost a competitive international on home soil for over 22 years since Denmark’s 3-2 victory in Naples in qualifying for Euro 2000.

Before Euro 2020 started, there were a lot of debates about the time and place, given it was coming amid a Covid crisis after a year’s delay and with this ludicrous spread of host cities.

It ended up being at precisely the right time and place in terms of the history of the game.

After a year when fans had been locked out of stadiums, that culminated in a cabal of elite clubs trying to lock everyone else out of the top level, this was vivid colour over so much grey. It reminded us, in genuinely pure ways, why we love the game.

Roberto Mancini’s Italy are on an international record of 37 matches without defeat, stretching all the way back to October 2018. The Azzurri’s last loss on home soil came way back in September 2016.

Spain coach Luis Enrique attempted to sum up his approach to rebuilding the Spanish international team with just three words; ‘attack’, ‘pressure’ and ‘ambition’. He said:

"If I had to choose just three words to define what our coaching staff is after in terms of how Spain play, the first word would be ‘attack’, the second ‘pressure’, and the third ‘ambition.’

"The most important word is ‘attack’. When we sit down to pick a team, the first thing we look at is what they offer in attack. That means there’s a specific value, and we think if we have this at our disposal we’ll have a greater chance of winning. This is our first aim  but every player will have ability to defend to balance this out.

“You’ll hear that and think: ‘Well that’s what every national team has!’ No! When we refer to ambition we mean playing the same every game, regardless of who we’re facing. I mean, we attack regardless of what the scoreline might be: we’ll just keep on attacking.  If we’re winning 3-0, we’re not just going to sit back and defend, and if we’re losing 2-0 then we’ll stop attacking or attack more in a certain way."