Italy beat Albania 2-1 on their EURO 2024 debut, so listed below are three speaking factors from the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.
Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella’s targets helped Italy safe a key win on Saturday, so what did we be taught from the Azzurri’s EURO 2024 debut?
Response
That is one factor Luciano Spalletti was tremendous joyful about. The CT praised his boys’ angle at a post-match press convention. Regardless of conceding the quickest purpose within the event’s historical past, the Azzurri hit again with two targets in 16 minutes. Most significantly, they dominated possession and pushed Albania inside their very own half for an enormous a part of the sport. There may be, in fact, a technical hole between Italy and Albania, however the Azzurri discovered themselves within the worst potential scenario final evening. The stadium was full of purple shirts, greater than 50,000 followers have been from Albania and the noise after their opening purpose was unbelievable. As Federico Chiesa identified, some Italy gamers had been there earlier than, conceding an early purpose in a European Remaining in opposition to England at Wembley Stadium solely three years earlier than however nonetheless managing to show issues round, successful the sport and the trophy.
Dominance and regrets
Italy clearly deserved to win the match however they need to have killed off the sport earlier. With Riccardo Calafiori and Alessandro Bastoni in central defence, the Azzurri may depend on so many playmakers of their group. Albania struggled to cowl all of the passing lanes sooner or later as a result of any Italian participant may present a key go within the ultimate third. Calafiori solely made his senior debut ten days in the past, however he performed like a veteran in opposition to Albania, and his help to the build-up was nothing wanting spectacular. Jorginho was the right Regista and Barella did just about every thing in the course of the park: key passes, battles, late runs and an important purpose. However, nevertheless, Italy ought to have killed off the sport earlier. Spalletti’s males had not less than three clear possibilities to attain yet another purpose within the first half, they usually needed to thank Gigio Donnarumma for a brilliant save within the dying minutes, which prevented a draw that may have been frankly undeserved.
Dangers
Italy dominated the match and deserved to win, as we already stated. Nevertheless, there are just a few recurrent errors that Spalletti not needs to see. The CT defined after the match that gamers should perceive after they can’t construct up from the again and must play a protracted go as an alternative or make a cross-field go to eliminate the ball in a harmful scenario. Albania’s opening purpose got here from a poor Federico Dimaro throw in and, coincidentally, the Inter star had made two related errors within the final recreation earlier than EURO 2024 in opposition to Bosnia and Herzegovina final week. Consistency and a spotlight to element shall be key this month, particularly in video games in opposition to greater opponents, so the Azzurri should both kill off video games earlier or keep away from foolish errors that may doubtlessly be lethal, however the early indicators are certainly optimistic.
