How Italy came back to defeat Albania in the Euro 2024 Group B match
The Staff of the Athletics
on 15/06/2024
What’s on tomorrow?
In the days ahead, the action on Sunday will include three games:
- Poland vs Netherlandsat 2pm BST, 9am ET.
- Slovenia vs Denmark at 5pm BST, 12pm ET.
- Serbia vs England at 8pm BST, 3pm ET.
All of the games will be live blogs in The Athletic!
Group B’s remaining fixtures
Wednesday
- Croatia vs Albania
Thursday
- Spain vs Italy
Monday June 24
- Albania vs Spain
- Croatia vs Italy
Spalletti on facing Spain next
As we prepare for Italy’s next match in the coming game against Spain, Luciano Spalletti spoke about the tactical adjustments they’ll need to implement: “Spain will probably set up differently to Albania, and squeeze us more. We’ll need to move the ball more quickly than we did tonight. Against Spain we’ll need to move the ball forwards more, and look to play balls in behind the defence.”
Sylvinho”We could have done better’
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Albania coach Sylvinho summarized the team’s performance following the defeat: “We started the game well with an early goal. The team was so excited after the goal but we should have performed better, especially in the first half. In the second we managed better and we had chances to score through Manaj.”
Can Italy win Euro 2024?
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When asked if Italy could repeat its title its title as European champions Luciano Spalletti responded that it’s how you perform that matters: “The only thing that can save us is the brand of our football and our team.”
Chiesa on Albania’s surprise early goal
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Chiesa also talked about the way Italy reacts to Albania’s goal in the first 23 secondsof the game “The reaction after Albania’s goal was fantastic. We created a number of opportunities in the first second half. The result was difficult hit, but I believe it was a great surprise, as our reaction was fantastic.
“As I said, however, we have to score more when we have so many chances. We risked conceding an equaliser during the final part of the game and it would have been a pity because we fully deserved to win.”
Spalletti: “We have to be more mean’
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Speaking after the match Luciano Spalletti sounded both happy but not impressed with his team’s game at the expense of Albania: “We thought we were much better than we were in many different circumstances. We have to be more shrewd, tidy and tidy during the building phase. You have to be aggressive and get the opposition to hurt. We felt that we were excellent at holding possession.
“We performed the game correctly. That’s the truth. The score doesn’t show the differences between the sides. We could have scored the chance of a draw late in the game with a ball that went over the top of an area of penalty.
“We were never short of breath, never struggling, we tried to play that throw-in in the first minute, an attempt to do what we’ve been saying in the last few days. Managing four midfielders, who are able to play neat and tidy football, helps you. Short passes in tight areas, they seem useless but they create space in another area of the pitch.”
Chiesa”We need to learn to complete the game’
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The Player of the Match Federico Chiesa spoke to UEFA.com following Italy’s victory: “I’m so happy for Italy and the performance of our team. Albania were very tough opponents, they were a lot of and quality.
“In the future, we should learn to finish the game when we have the chance. Otherwise, you can always be at risk, as we were during the final minutes of the game.”
Perfect 10 for Italy
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Italy has now played 10 consecutive games without defeat during the Euros winning seven games and drawing three to Euro 2016 and incorporating their title run in 2021. This is only two times they’ve managed to do it in a streak of 10 consecutive matches during the tournament. They had earlier done it during their initial 10 games during the tournament between 1968 and 1988.
They’re also the third team to score 10 consecutive Euros matches in addition to England (11) along with Portugal (10).
Italian pass masters
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Four Italian players four players from Italy – Jorginho, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella – managed to complete at minimum 100 passes in the past day.
Since 1980, just an additional team seen as many players cross the mark in one Euros game: Spain against Sweden in the Euro 2020 group stage.
Match stats
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Italy 2-1 Albania
- Shots: 15 – 8
- Shots in goal Goals scored: 5 2
- Saves: 0 – 3
- Possession: 65% – 35%
- Passes attempted Passes attempted: 820 – 379
- Accuracy of Passing 93%-87 percent
- Corners: 5 – 3
- Fouls: 7 – 7
- Yellow cards 2 – 2
Spalletti isn’t satisfied
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Luciano Spalletti spoke to RAI in Italy following his team’s win: “There were a lot of good things, particularly in the first half, but they have to lead somewhere. They can’t be an end in themselves. There were opportunities to go and do damage on several occasions. We didn’t go about finishing moves as fast as we could. Often we turned around and went back again to see if we’d carved out the space to finish the move.”
On the question of whether Barella can be replaced: “A national team can’t go without anyone. We have 26 very good players so that’s the wrong way to look at it.”
Inter Milan leading the way for Italy
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The duo of Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella both scoring on the scoresheet today, it’s the second time two Inter Milan players have scored for Italy in the same game in a major tournament (World Cup, or Euros).
The first incident occurred on the 17th of June, 1970, when Italy won the World Cup semi-final victory over West Germany in Mexico, which was referred to in some circles as”the “Game of the Century”.
Chiesa gets the plaudits
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Federico Chiesa has been named Player of the Match. The UEFA’s Technical Observer Panel said of his performance: “He was the most dangerous player, causing a lot of problems with his speed and dribbling.”
Jorginho in the middle of Italy’s football
The Athletic
Jorginho scored 131 passes today which is the highest number of passes by players in the opening matches of this tournament thus far.
He wasn’t able to match Kroos’ 99 percent completion rate, however…
Group B standings
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- Spain: 3 points, +3 goal difference
- Italy 3 points Italy: 3 pts, 1 Gd
- Albania: 0 pts, -1 gd
- Croatia (0 points) 3 Gd
Good start to Italy
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Italy has now won their opening game in all of the four major tournaments that they’ve participated for: Euro 2024, Euro 2020, Euro 2016 and the 2014 World Cup.
This is their first attempt at having achieved this in four major tournaments consecutively.
Italy is a step above, however Albania was able to hold their own
In addition to that shocking first goal Italy overcame Albania and had superior technical skills in every position.
There’s no shame in being beaten 2-1 by the current European champions, but.
FT: Italy 2-1 Albania
This was certainly Albania’s final chance to win as the referee blew for the final time. It was not a great performance from Italy however they managed to fight back and dominate the remainder of the game. It was a great way to start their tournament.
