Italy responded to the fastest ever Euro goal and scored an important victory. We must improve, says the team’s star

Italy made a winning start to the European Championship, beating Albania by the narrowest of margins and winning 2-1. The player of the match was Federico Chiesa, who caused huge problems for the opponent’s defence. How does he rate the opening match?

Italy definitely did not have an optimal start to the match. After only 23 seconds they were already down after a terrible throw-in by Federico Dimarco, the opening goal was scored by Nedim Bajrami.

However, the experienced coach Luciano Spallletti’s charges kept their cool and managed to turn the result in their favour in the 16th minute after goals from Bastoni and Barella.

For the rest of the match, the spectators did not see any more goals. In stoppage time of the second half, however, the game could have been levelled, but substitute Rey Manaj failed to capitalise on his chance.

The defending champion from 2021 thus scored a very valuable victory. In Group B, they still have matches against Spain and Croatia, so a loss to the Albanian outsiders could have had immeasurable consequences.

“In these big tournaments things can easily go wrong and the result can be very cruel for us. The coach wants us to keep our game at a high level and we have to improve,” said Chiesa, who was voted player of the match.

“We did the things we tried in training but we need to be more clinical in the area in front of the goalkeeper. The start was shocking but the finish was positive. Now we face Spain, which is a great team,” added the Juventus tribal player.

Italy’s second match at the European Championships will be against Spain on Thursday, June 20 at 21:00. It is in this clash that the final first place in Group B may be decided.

Source: UEFA