Newsletter

Euro 2024 Qualifying: Italy-England 1-2 – Football

England beat Italy 2-1 (2-0) in the first day of group C of the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

False departure Italy. In the first qualifying match for the 2024 European Championships, Southgate’s England took revenge on the previous European by winning 2-1 in Naples against a two-faced national team: disunited and fragile in the first half, intense and courageous in the second. The blue team remains unfinished, apart from the heavy difficulty throughout the first half – the one that determined the English escape – and on balance quite sterile, even in the best moments. The enthusiasm of Napoli in the odor of the Scudetto is not enough, nor the goal of the man who came from the other side of the world, Retegui. Of course, it could have even ended with a draw, given the shock of the game in the second half and the final minutes in numerical superiority, but the small number of clear scoring chances for Italy shows that the defeat is not the result of defensive mistakes alone.

To restart towards the European Championship and get around the obstacle of missing goals, Roberto Mancini bets on Mateo Retegui, ‘oriundo’ of the Tigre who at 23 years old and at the first blue call-up takes the centre-forward shirt, supported by Berardi and Pellegrini. For the rest, with Bonucci in the stands, the central defense pair is Acerbi-Toloi, while the Napoli captain, Di Lorenzo, runs on the right flanks, and the coach finds Spinazzola on the left. Mirroring Southgate’s England set-up, with a 4-3-3 with Kane, captain with the ‘one love’ armband, offensive end and the young talent Belligham looking for spaces between the lines. Before the start, the moved memory of Gianluca Vialli by the whole stadium: the Azzurri play with the name of their angel under the collar of the new shirt. The emotion does not prevent the boos of a part of the stadium at the English ‘God save the King’. The rhythms are sustained immediately. Di Lorenzo from Pellegrini’s cross and Retegui headed from a corner missed the goal, and the first shot on target came from Saka after a rebound from the edge, in the 8th minute. Donnarumma blocks to the ground. The intervention in flight on Bellingham’s venomous right foot (11′) was more challenging, which acts as a prologue to England’s quick lead: corner, Kane on the edge of the small box, tow and shot, Rice finds the ball on the rebound to make it 1-0 from a few steps. And it’s only the 13th. The goal breaks the initial balance, enhances the merits of the English dribble and underlines the Azzurri’s limits. Who start from a suffering midfield in the face of the dynamism of the Southgate national team. In fact, the Barella-Jorginho-Verratti trio is in awe, the timing of the pressing is wrong and struggles to restart. Retegui is alone in front. In the 19th minute Kane’s descent from the right offers Bellingham the ball to double, the slide in front of goal late by a whisker. England, as short as Italy is forced to stretch in pursuit of the ball, is the owner of the ball. In the 31st minute Phillips came close to scoring, with a right-footed shot from outside that took advantage of Jorginho’s lost ball and grazed the post. In the 38th minute, Retegui’s only flash, served deep, his right foot slammed into Maguire who hadn’t let him breathe until then. Then, at the end of the period, the episode that cuts Italy’s legs: another corner, Di Lorenzo extends his arm to anticipate Kane, the Serbian Jovanovic needs the Var to be certain. But there are no doubts, like the English centre-forward’s right-footed shot from the spot that displaces Donnarumma, making it 2-0 in the 44th minute and setting the record for England’s top scorer of all time. Time remains for the knockout goal devoured by Grealish into an empty net Italy, unchanged in men, tries the forcing from the start of the second half, and England accepts waiting for the right restart. Pellegrini in the 5th minute has the opportunity to close in on the left, the shot under the goal is high. Retegui’s right foot (10′) is unrealistic, but shows the Argentine’s desire to make an impact: time for a minute and Pellegrini provides him with the assist for his right footed shot into the area which is worth the hopeful goal. The 1-2 draw revives the Azzurri, Verratti tries from outside, walled up, before Politano enters for a dull Berardi and Cristante replaces Barella: the set-up turns into a 4-2-3-1. Gnonto and Tonali also enter for Pellegrini and Jorginho. Politano has the free ball fifteen minutes from the end, but Shaw anticipates it before the second yellow card (with the referee’s hesitations) which is worth the expulsion. In 11 against 10 Italy attacks head down and with little lucidity, England defends with nine players. And nothing changes. Southgate celebrates, Mancini comes to terms with an all-uphill restart

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending