The flexed muscles in Mario Balotelli's ebony torso became the symbol of Italy's 2-1 win over Germany in a Euro 2012 semi-final between the continent's most successful national squads.
“It's us” and “Italy's pride,” La Gazzetta dello Sport titled Friday to celebrate a brace that the Manchester City striker scored in the first half of the big match in Warsaw.
After his second goal, a smashing shot to the left of a frozen Manuel Neuer, Balo celebrated by taking off his short and standing frozen as he awaited his team-mates' embrace.
The 21-year-old, who was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents and raised by a foster family near Bergamo, dedicated the brace to his adoptive mother Silvia and said he will score four goals in the final, when also his father Francesco is to be present.
“Super Mario, new Italy's hero,” Gazzetta said as enthusiastic praise dimmed a bad-guy reputation the striker has built on and off the pitch.
After a difficult start in the tournament, with a polemic celebration following his goal in a 2-0 defeat of Croatia, Balo is now poised to clinch the top-scorer crown.
He is level on three goals with four other strikers from eliminated squads, and looks to stay ahead of Spaniards Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres, all trailing him on two, in Sunday's final.
Italy and holders Spain have already met, drawing 1-1 in the group stage of the tournament on June 10.
Rivalling for praise with Super Mario was coach Cesare Prandelli, whose tactics against Germany were “a masterpiece,” according to commentator Massimo Mauro.
“Is this the same Italy that Prandelli two years ago took over (from Marcello Lippi) after the ruins of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?” wondered Fabrizio Bocca, writing like Mauro in La Repubblica.
Bocca said that the game in Warsaw was the Azzurri's best since they lifted the 2006 World Cup.
Most media focussed on Italy's unbeaten record in official games against Germany, which now stands at four wins and four draws.
Germany boast three European titles and as many world ones, while Italy lifted four World Cups and hope to win a second continental one after a triumph in 1968.
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