How Italy overcame Albania in their Group B match at Euro 2024

Experience the triumph of Italy in Germany, even though Albania managed to score the fastest goal in the history of the European Championship.

What’s scheduled for tomorrow?

 

Considering tomorrow, there will be three matches on Sunday:

Netherlands vs. Poland at 2:00 PM BST / 9:00 AM ET.

Denmark vs. Slovenia at 5 p.m. BST/12 p.m. ET.

England vs. Serbia, 8 p.m. BST/3 p.m. ET.

Remaining fixtures for Group B

Wednesday

Albania versus Croatia

Thursday

Italy versus Spain

Monday, June 24: Spain vs. Albania

Italy versus Croatia

 

Spalletti will next play Spain.

Luciano Spalletti discussed the tactical adjustments that Italy will need to make in preparation for their upcoming match against Spain, saying, “Spain will probably set up differently than Albania, and squeeze us more.” Moving the ball quicker than we did tonight will be necessary. We’ll need to play balls in behind the defence and move the ball forward more when we play Spain.”

 

“We should have performed better,” says Sylvinho.

 

After their defeat, Albania’s coach Sylvinho summarised his team’s performance, saying, “We got off to a good start with an early goal. After the score, the team was ecstatic, but we should have played better, particularly in the first half. We played better in the second, and Manaj gave us opportunities to score.”

 

Is Italy able to win 2024 Euros?

 

When asked whether Italy might win the title again in Europe, Luciano Spalletti said that the important thing is the performance, saying, “The only thing that can save us is the brand of our football and our team.”

Chiesa about Albania’s unexpected first goal

 

Chiesa also discussed Italy’s response to Albania’s goal in the first twenty-three seconds of play, saying, “It was a great reaction after their goal.” We had a tonne of opportunities in the first half. Although it was a difficult blow, I believe it was a good shock because of how well we responded.But as I mentioned, with so many opportunities, we need to score more. We ran the risk of giving up an equaliser in the closing stages of the match, which would have been unfortunate because we deserved to win.”

Spalletti: “More meanness is required.”

 

Luciano Spalletti expressed mixed feelings over his team’s performance versus Albania in his post-match remarks, saying, “We thought we were better than we were in too many situations.” In the build-up, we must be more ruthless, orderly, and disciplined. You have to go inflict damage on the opposition. We believed that we were excellent at maintaining control.”We executed the game perfectly.

It is accurate. The disparity between the two teams is not reflected in the score. With a late pass over the top into the penalty box, we took a chance to tie the score.We attempted to play the throw-in in the first minute, trying to accomplish what we’ve been talking about for the past few days, but we never felt out of breath or in difficulty. It helps to have four midfielders under your control who can play clean football. Although they appear pointless in confined spaces, short passes open up space in other parts of the pitch.”

Chiesa: “We ought to get better at finishing games.”

 

The match’s MVP Following Italy’s victory, Federico Chiesa said to UEFA.com, “I’m very proud of the team and our performance. Albania posed a formidable opponent due to their superior quantity and quality.We ought to get better at finishing games when we get the chance in the future. If not, you might always be in danger, like we were in the last few minutes of the match.”

Italy gets a perfect ten.

Italy has now won seven and drawn three of their past ten European Championship games, including their 2021 title run. Their winning streak dates back to Euro 2016. They have only done it in 10 straight games in the tournament twice, in their first 10 games from 1968 to 1988. This is their second such run in the competition.

They have now joined England(11) and Portugal(10) as the only teams to score in ten successive European Championship games.

 

Italian pass masters

 

At least 100 passes were completed today by four Italian players: Jorginho, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni, and Nicolo Barella.

Only one other squad since 1980 has had as many players reach that figure in a single Euros match: Spain versus Sweden in the group stage of Euro 2020.

statistic for the match

 

Albania 2-1 Italy

15 – 8 shots; 5 – 2 shots on goal

Saves: 0–3.

Ownership: 65% – 35%

Attempts at passes: 820–379

Accuracy for passing: 93% – 87%

Five to three corners

7 – 7 in fouls

Cards in yellow: 2 – 2.

 

After his team’s victory, Luciano Spalletti said to RAI in Italy, “There were a lot of good things, especially in the first half, but they have to lead somewhere.” They cannot serve as their own goal. There were multiple possibilities to go and cause damage. We did not attempt to complete moves as quickly as possible. Frequently, we circled back to check if we had cleared the area needed to complete the transfer.”

Regarding whether Barella is unavoidable: “A national team cannot function without its players. That’s not the right way to look at it—we have 26 extremely talented guys.”

Leading the way for Italy is Inter Milan

 

It is only the second occasion that two Inter Milan players have scored for Italy in the same match in a major tournament (World Cup or Euros), as Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella both found the scoresheet today.

The first example occurred on June 17, 1970, during Italy’s triumph against West Germany in the World Cup semifinal in Mexico; this match has been dubbed the “Game of the Century” by some.

Chiesa receives the praise.

Player of the Match goes to Federico Chiesa. Regarding his performance, the UEFA Technical Observer Panel stated: “He was the most dangerous player, causing a lot of problems with his speed and dribbling.”

The centrepiece of Italy’s play is Jorginho.

 

Tonight, Jorginho completed the most passes of any player in the tournament’s opening games with 131.

However, he was unable to equal Kroos’ 99% completion rate.

 

Standings for Group B

 

Spain: 3 points, plus 3 goals conceded

Italy: 3 points, 1 goal

Albania: -1 gd, 0 points

Croatia: 3 GD and 0 points

 

impressive beginning for Italy

 

Italy has now prevailed in their opening game in each of the last four major competitions in which they have participated: the 2014 World Cup, Euro 2024, Euro 2020, and Euro 2016.

They haven’t done that in four consecutive major tournaments.