England won with forceps on the lawn of Italy for the opening of the qualifications for Euro 2024. Scorer, Harry Kane became the only top scorer in the history of the English selection.
The remake of the final of the last Euro as the first clash of qualifications for the next edition. Hard to beat. Italy and England met at the Diego Maradona stadium in Naples for the first day of Group C.
As soon as the kick-off, it was the English, eager to take their revenge, who took the match on their own. After making a superb parry on a strike from Bellingham (12e), Donnarumma was unable to do anything on the following corner which took advantage Rice to open the scoring after a slightly confused action (13th).
Much more enterprising, the nation at the Three Lions did not fail to double the bet thanks to a penalty of Kane just before the break (44th). Thanks to this new rose, the Tottenham striker is now the only goal record holder in England with 54 goals while still sharing first place with Wayne Rooney until there. In the process, Grealish had the opportunity to kill all suspense but failed to fit when he was perfectly placed (45th + 1). At the break, England logically led 0-2.
When they returned from the locker room, the two teams came back with a very different face from that displayed in the first. A more conquering for Italy, a more feverish for England. At the end of a superb collective occasion, Mateo Reteguithe surprise of Robert Mancinicheated Pickford to revive the suspense. Unknown to the general public, the Argentine-born striker therefore scored on his first appearance in the jersey of the Nazionale.
Ten minutes from the end, when Italy were struggling to be really dangerous, Shaw was sent off, giving another boost to the hosts who spent the end of the game giving it their all as the whole English team stayed behind.
La Squadra could never really take advantage of their numerical superiority and could not equalize at the very end of the game. Thanks to this success, the English are performing a very good operation in the race for qualification.
In the same group, North Macedonia got the better of Malta (2-1) while Ukraine was bye.
