Albania bought off to a dream begin. A throw-in from Federico Dimarco ended up fallacious and on the toes of Nedim Bajrami within the offensive penalty space.
And after 22 seconds, Albania opened the scoring, shockingly.
European Championship in soccer
The enjoyment? Excessive – however short-lived.
As a result of already after eleven minutes the reply got here. Lorenzo Pellegrini performed a brief nook to Dimarco who performed it again to Pelligrini. The 27-year-old midfielder lifted the ball to the far submit the place Alessandro Bastoni was completely positioned to move dwelling the equaliser.
– We all know that Italy is a robust crew – however we performed freely. We had nothing to lose, so we went out and loved ourselves. We misplaced right now however we will do higher and can put together for the following match, says Albania’s Nedim Bajrami to SVT Sport.
Dream assembly accomplished turnaround
And simply over 5 minutes later, the turnaround was full. Nicolo Barella turned the hero of the match when he scored a thunderbolt simply outdoors the penalty space. Thomas Strakosha was fully with out a probability.
– It was a vital victory in opposition to Albania, which is the weakest crew on this group. However there are in all probability extra gears to place in, says SVT Sports activities knowledgeable Daniel Nannskog.
– We now have to have a look at it match by match. We’ll give attention to what we did effectively and what we will enhance and simply proceed on our manner, says Jorginho to SVT Sport.
Then the tempo actually slowed down – and the second half was pure sleeping capsules. Italy picked up three very important factors as they received 2-1 in opposition to Albania in what is called the group of dying.
European Championship
Italy
2 – 1
Albania