Antonio Conte leads standout Italy side against Germany at Euro 2016

The Bayern Munich coach Carlo Ancelotti tells a story.

It was September 1999 and Ancelotti was in charge of Juventus. The week before, he watched his side suffer a 2-0 defeat away to Lecce and he was beginning to feel the pressure.

The previous season, the club had finished a lowly seventh. Ancelotti had arrived the previous February, replacing the iconic figure of Marcelo Lippi, and was tasked with the resurrection.

Now here he was, just a few weeks into his first full campaign and already feeling the cold edge of the knife in his back.

In the dirty Turin rain, his team was being held scoreless by Venezia. The clock ticked past the 90^th minute. Ancelotti needed something.

Then, a long diagonal pass was flicked into the penalty area for Filippo Inzaghi but his attempted shot was blocked and the ball rolled towards the edge of the penalty area.

And there was the club's captain, Antonio Conte, who dived towards it and sent the low shot to the net.

On the sideline, the normally stone-faced Ancelotti allowed himself a moment of celebration. He clenched both fists and waved them in front of him.

When he needed someone to fight and dig and scrape and push to the limits, there was his skipper.

Conte was an unremarkable player at a time when Italian soccer provided a conveyor belt of glittering talent.

But he knew his limitations and his worth.

“When I was a player, my efforts and work rate, my willingness to sacrifice fitness and humility made up for my lack of pure talent but sometimes, if I didn’t find a teammate next to me, I might lose the ball,” he said later.

“As a manager, my first thought from Day One was that I wanted to find solutions for my players when the ball reached them, as I could not.”

Perhaps it's what has motivated him as a coach – those shortcomings that hounded him during his playing days.

Because while he faded into the background so easily as an energetic central midfielder for Juventus, his management career has pushed him front and centre - with Euro 2016 potentially his crowning glory.

His Italy side have been the standout team at the tournament and face into a quarterfinal with Germany on Saturday having ruthlessly, beautifully and fatally pierced the reigning-champions Spain earlier in the week.

Conjuring a defensive master class, Italy waged a remarkable control over how the game developed. This performance, remember, came against the reigning champions and the team that thumped the Azzurri in the 2012 final.

But this was not about revenge. It was a lot more clinical than that.

Poor Vicente del Bosque's side were left weary and woozy. Yes, Spain – the creators and nurturers of the hypnotic tiki-taka style with its short, quick, incisive and exhaustive passing – ran out of ideas and energy.

Few were surprised. Italy had already done something similar to Belgium – tipped as one of the favourites - during the group stage and displayed a meticulous defensive structure that never strayed or lost its shape or concentration for 90 minutes.

Like Ancelotti all those years before, Conte too has his trusted on-pitch generals to rely on.

Having spent three seasons as Juve's coach, (where he guided the club to three successive championships) his foundation there lay in the club's Holy Trinity: goalkeeper Gigi Buffon and defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini.

With the national team, it's something similar. Aided by the likes of Andrea Barzaghli and Roma's terrier-like defensive midfielder Daniele de Rossi, it's an impenetrable wall.

From four games, they've conceded one goal and that was to the Republic of Ireland when a second-string Italian team cared little about the result as they were already guaranteed top spot in the group.

And while many doubted their ability in the final third – a noble concern given they managed 16 goals from 10 qualifiers and Graziano Pelle was their top scorer with a miserable three – Italy have, quite ominously, been exceptionally economical in front of goal. They've had 16 attempts on target and scored five times – a pretty good return for a team that can't get goals.

Patient, calculating, cold – Conte's Italy wait for the opposition to grow irritated or tired or both – and then hit them.

It's easy to flippantly disregard the approach as nothing more than cynicism and a mere way of spoiling the opposition. But the detail involved - the composure and technical intelligence needed - can't be overstated. It's something to be admired and deeply respected.

The similarities between their opener against Belgium and what happened against Spain were intriguing.

When Emanuele Giaccherini gave them the lead in the opening clash, it was from a move worked on tirelessly in training. With one striker leading the line, Conte needs his support players to make astute runs and exploit space when they see it. When Bonucci – “one of my favourite ever players”, according to Pep Guardiola – measured a superb pass between two Belgian defenders, Giaccherini tucked it away effortlessly after 32 minutes. The plan had been carried out to perfection.

Later, as Belgium pushed for an equalizer, Italy caught them on a counter-attack and Pelle scored neatly from close range.

Against Spain, it was Chiellini who followed up a loose rebound to score after 33 minutes while and, as del Bosque's side gambled more, Italy caught them on a counter-attack and Pelle scored neatly from close range.

On the sideline, Conte lost control of his emotions, jumped into the arms of one of his backroom team, dived onto the top of the dugout and gestured wildly to supporters.

Like Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, he kicks every ball. But that's always been the case – even when he was a player.

“I like the verb 'to fight' ’’, he says.

“I am a perfectionist in my life and I want the best. I want my players to feel me very close. I suffer and win with them.”

After this, Conte takes over at Chelsea where everything will inevitably change and he'll become something different.

But there's still plenty of time to savour him in all his glory.