Italy fans in Newport on Euro 2020 final against England

The Italians face England at Wembley at 8pm, having knocked out Spain on penalties in the semi-final.

Marco Attorre, 37, managed to get to the semi-final at Wembley, and is hoping it won’t go the distance again.

“I’ll be watching with my family,” he said.

“We tried to get tickets for the final, but they were over €900.

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“Italy are normally slow starters. They seem to have a young team with a lot of energy and Mancini has them playing good pressing football, which they don’t normally do.

“England are a very strong team. It’s looking a very tough game – one goal could nick it.

Marco Attorre with his son at Wembley for the semi-final against Spain. Picture: Marco Attorre

“The nerves are all over the place.

“We went to France – me and a friend – and watched them lose on penalties to Germany (in Euro 2016), and we went to the semi-final against Spain where my son was almost in tears when it went to penalties.

“I’m going to go with an Italy 2-1 win in 90 minutes, but after that anything could happen.”

Rebecca Emmanuel and her husband Owen took over Vittorio’s in Newport in 2019. The restaurant was started by Vittorio Rizza, her grandfather.

“He was a Napoli fan and always followed the football,” she said. “He even liked to watch it on his own so he could watch it properly.

Vittorio and Laura Rizza. Picture: Rebecca Emmanuel.

“He made a bet that if they won the World Cup [in 2006] he would shave his head. He had beautiful wavey hair so my nan was not very happy about that.

“He would’ve been so excited for tonight.

“We’ll be watching it as a family – my auntie Anna and my mum Leandra [Mr Rizza’s daughters] and my nan.

“We’ve got lots of Italian staff too who have had it on the radio all through the tournament while they’ve been working.

“Fortunately we don’t open until 5pm tomorrow so we should be okay by then!”

Vittorio Rizza was a passionate Italy supporter. Picture: Rebecca Emmanuel.

Dario Scopelliti, 35, is a chef at Vittorio's. He said he was surprised with Italy’s performances in this year's tournament, and was hopeful they could go all the way.

“I'm looking forward to see the match, I hope we're going to win,” he said.

“I'm not really confident, I can't really say Italy will win, but I hope so. You need a little bit of luck - England are very strong.

“I suspect it will be a draw. I hope it's going to be up before extra time - I don’t want to see another game like Spain, because penalties might just be down to a little bit of luck - there’s lots of pressure.

“I would prefer it to be in extra time or one team to win the game, but I think they will go to penalties.

“It would be difficult. We're not very lucky with penalties. If you think about the past, Italy have lost a lot of penalties - I'm talking about from 1986 and back in 1990s losing lots of matches on penalties.

“I'm going to be home with my family. We're going to watch the match and just enjoy it. Whoever is going to win, I'll be happy anyway, because for me it’s really great we are in the final. I was not expecting them to be this good.”