Alvaro Morata has been dropped to the bench for Spain s Euro 2020 semi-final against Italy at Wembley.
The 28-year-old Juventus striker had started all five of Spain s matches at the tournament, scoring twice – including a vital extra-time strike in the dramatic 5-3 win over Croatia in the round of 16.
But Morata has also endured a tough time in front of goal, missing a penalty during the 5-0 rout of Slovakia.
Of his 16 non-penalty attempts in the tournament, seven have been on target and he is under-performing an expected goals (xG) tally of 3.16, as per Opta.
Luis Enrique has staunchly defended the former Atletico and Real Madrid player but substituted him after 54 minutes of the quarter-final against Switzerland.
OFICIAL | ¡¡TENEMOS LA ALINEACIÓN INICIAL PARA LAS SEMIS!!
Estos son los once jugadores elegidos por para este derbi mediterráneo por un billete en la final de la .
¿ESTÁIS LISTOS, AFICIÓN? ¡¡VAMOOOOOS!!
— Selección Española de Fútbol (@SeFutbol)
Gerard Moreno was his replacement in St Petersburg but the Villareal striker went on to endure a similarly wasteful outing and Luis Enrique has opted for a mobile front three without a specialist centre-forward, with Dani Olmo and Mikel Oyarzabal starting alongside Ferran Torres.
That means Pablo Sarabia misses out, alongside Gerard s club team-mate Pau Torres, who is replaced at centre-back by Eric Garcia.
Italy boss Roberto Mancini makes the one expected change to the XI that beat Belgium, with Chelsea left-back Emerson coming in for Leonardo Spinazzola, whose magnificent tournament was cut short by a ruptured Achilles.
Our 11 starters for !
— Italy (@azzurri)
This is the fourth consecutive European Championship meeting between Italy and Spain, with the latter winning a quarter-final penalty shoot-out in 2008 before swaggering to a dominant 4-0 final win at Euro 2012.
Italy, under Antonio Conte, gained a measure of revenge with a 2-0 last-16 triumph in Paris at Euro 2016.
