The Azurri of Italy commenced their title defence with a 2-1 win over Albania at the Signal Iduna Park. Both teams had not even settled before Alba
The Azurri of Italy commenced their title defence with a 2-1 win over Albania at the Signal Iduna Park.
Both teams had not even settled before Albania took the lead with just 23 seconds played after a catastrophic error from Italy.
Nedim Bajrami’s goal was historic as it was the fastest goal ever scored in the history of the European Championship.
The Azurri bounced back into the game after Alessandro Bastoni ran onto a clever lofted pass from Lorenzo Pellegrini and easily beat the goalkeeper with a beautiful header to make the score 1-1 in the 11th minute.
Italy scored their second goal in the 16th minute by Inter Milan’s Nicolo Barela. The diminutive midfielder fired a first time shot into the left post to give the Azzurri fans great joy.
Italy took over the game dominating play until the last 10 minutes in the second half when Albania decided to go all out and seek for the equaliser.
Luciano Spalletti will be delighted with the win but will be worried about the chances they squandered alongside the loss of focus in the early stages of the game.
Italy will face Spain in their second game of Group B while Albania will square off against the troubled Croatia.
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