The World Cup quarterfinals conclude today with two all-European matches, as Italy takes on the Netherlands early before Germany faces Sweden just after noon.
Italy have gotten to this point through being solid and opportunistic. They didn’t get rattled when Australia took a lead on them in the group stage, and they didn’t let a loss against Brazil throw them out of whack heading into the knockout round. The Italians dealt pretty intelligently with China’s physicality in a 2-0 win to get here, but it’s safe to say today is going to be the sternest test they’ve faced in this tournament to date.