Girelli fires Italy past Norway to 1st Euro semifinal in 28 years

Cristiana Girelli scored a 90th-minute winner as Italy beat Norway 2-1 on Wednesday to book their spot in the semifinals at the Women's European Championship.

It marks Italy's first semifinal appearance at a major tournament since the 1997 Women's Euro when they defeated Spain before losing to Germany in the final.

Italy started well but were on the ropes after Norway captain Ada Hegerberg cancelled out their opening goal, but Girelli, who had opened the scoring five minutes into the second half, was not to be denied and netted the winner to send thousands of blue-clad fans into ecstasy.

They will next face either reigning champions England or Sweden, who meet in Zurich on Thursday.

"It's incredible, beautiful. In front of all these people, so many messages arrived from Italy the last few days," elated Italy coach Andrea Soncin said.

"It's something fantastic. I think this is the biggest gift we can give to all those who watch us, to all those little girls, those young women who live football with passion."

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Norway, who hadn't played a knockout game at the Euro since losing the 2013 final 1-0 to Germany, got off to a stuttering start, turning over the ball in midfield and allowing Arianna Caruso to fire a shot just wide.

The Italians racked up several decent goal-scoring chances in the second half, but it was Norway's 20-year-old winger Signe Gaupset who went closest to breaking the deadlock before the break with an audacious lob from just inside the Italian half.

The Italians took the lead five minutes into the second half, Girelli getting the slightest of touches on Sofia Cantore's ball into the box to steer it home, and they had the ball in the net again three minutes later only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.

Norway tried to make the most of the reprieve as captain Hegerberg won a penalty a few minutes later, but for the second time at the tournament she sent her spot kick wide of the target, burying her head in her hands after her miss.

The former Ballon d'Or winner also missed in Norway's 2-1 win over Switzerland.

"It's bitter, it's really bitter," Hegerberg said.

"I must honestly say that I am proud of the group and how we have performed. We are close to being in the top four in Europe, but it's not enough."

She made amends in the 66th minute, levelling with a deft finish to silence the raucous Italian fans in the crowd.

Italy then struggled to find their previous fluency until Girelli ghosted in at the far post to head home in the final minute of normal time for their first knockout stage win at a major tournament since the 2019 World Cup.

Girelli now has 61 goals for Italy and the last three all went into the same net at the mountains end of the Stade de Genève stadium.

She also scored one of the goals of the tournament, curling in a 22-meter shot against Portugal in the group stage.

Information from Reuters, The Associated Press and ESPN Research was used in this report.