Italy deservedly wins on their European debut against Albania, despite the final scare, due to the opportunity in Manaj saved by Donnarumma and the disadvantage after just 23″, the fastest goal in the history of the European Championships, scored by Bajrami and favored by a clumsy lateral foul beaten by an evidently emotional Dimarco. Then, led by Pellegrini on his way to the best condition, there was an immediate comeback punctuated by goals from Bastoni (assisted by Lorenzo) and Barella. Then many opportunities almost disappeared (with a post from Frattesi) and that last minute risk which could have nullified the effort. With the three points we are immediately alongside Spain who easily got rid of Croatia in the afternoon: the direct clash will take place on Thursday in Gelsenkirchen.
The start was shocking: not even time to start and beat the first lateral foul of the match in our goal area, which Dimarco thought of serving Bastoni in the center of the area, but finding Bajrami on his path who surprised the Inter defender and from a tight position he whipped under the crossbar. Frost on the few Azzurri at the Westfalen Stadion and above all on Spalletti, tight in his jacket with a huge Italia written on his shoulders, suddenly curves for the fastest goal in the history of the European Championship, 23 seconds. But what brought his smile back was precisely the beautiful Italy drawn between Coverciano and Iserlohn, with a fluid deployment with three defenders in position (Di Lorenzo and the debutant Calafiori as wide players, Bastoni as central defenders), two pushing wingers like Chiesa on the right and Dimarco on the left, Jorginho in control with Barella more vertically than horizontally next to him, and then Frattesi and Pellegrini behind Scamacca. Not even a minute after the goal conceded, our own Lorenzo had the equalizer but his right-footed shot into the area ended up just wide. Sylvinho’s Albania holed up in their 433 with the tall wingers actually pressing into the defensive line, while Italy took possession of the ball and never let it go again, finding the equalizer in the 11th minute on a football scheme corner, with Dimarco’s serve for Pellegrini and a perfect saber shot to the far post collected by Bastoni, and the goal of the reassuring lead in the 16th minute with a long offensive action and a strike and strike closed by a great right-footed shot from the outside of the neck of Barella to electrocute Strakosha.
But Italy, defending the rare times with 4231, did not stop and built three more chances, with a post from Frattesi in the 34th minute (half a miracle from Strakosha), another save from the Albanian on a shot from Scamacca freed by a great header assist from Pellegrini and another insertion from the Roma player following a cross from Chiesa, with the ball taken with the shoulder rather than the head for the conclusion just wide. In the second half, tactics prevailed, on the one hand Albania defending (65% of ball possession for Italy at the end) and the Azzurri exaggerating in their dribbling as an end in itself. So after the many substitutions (in Cambiaso, Cristante, Retegui and Darmian for Chiesa, Pellegrini, Scamacca and Dimarco) Albania had the best opportunity with a throw to go over the naive Calafiori, control by Manaj and touch underneath , deflected with the shoulder blade by Donnarumma as he dived.
