Italy, reigning European champion, has regained hope of playing in Euro 2024 after a narrow success (2-1) at home against Ukraine on Tuesday in Milan. Thanks to this second success in four matches, the Nazionale returned with seven points to match their opponent of the day who played one more match. England is the solid leader of this group C with 13 points in five matches.
“Frattesi d’Italia”: he does not yet have an anthem to his name, but we will undoubtedly have to remember the capital contribution of Davide Frattesi to relaunch the Nazionale on the road to the Euro in Germany. Three days after its draw (1-1) against North Macedonia in Skopje, Luciano Spalletti’s team absolutely had to win: supported by Frattesi, it fulfilled its mission, failing to completely reassure its supporters.
In the absence of injured Federico Chiesa, salvation for the new coach came from the untenable Sassuolo attacking midfielder. His agreement with Giacomo Raspadori, preferred to Ciro Immobile, captain and scorer in Skopje on Saturday, put the Ukrainian defense to torture, particularly in the first period.
To open the scoring, in the 12th minute, they benefited from a boost from Georgiy Sudakov who tripped and involuntarily served Mattia Zaccagni, whose cross was victoriously taken over by Frattesi for his second goal in seven caps. It was again Frattesi who, taking advantage of a ball poorly repelled by the Ukrainian defense, doubled Italy’s advantage (29th).
But as against North Macedonia, Italy, until then calm, let Ukraine return to the game at the end of the first period. Gianluigi Donnarumma, heavily whistled by the San Siro public who still have not forgiven him for leaving AC Milan for PSG, delayed the deadline by repelling a shot from Dovbyk (37th). But the goalkeeper, considered largely responsible for the Macedonian equalizer on a free kick on Saturday, was unable to do anything after a first save when he found himself alone against Andriy Yarmolenko (41st).
In the second half, Italy regained the upper hand, without managing to add a third goal, while showing worrying feverishness on the rare Ukrainian counterattacks. “We must savor this victory,” insisted Spalletti, who succeeded Roberto Mancini last month. We will be able to work more peacefully, the last three weeks have been very busy.
