ROME, June 12: Italy waited a long time for this European Championship to start and then showed on Friday just how eager the team was to play the tournament opener.
After humiliatingly failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Italy was already back on track with a perfect qualifying campaign of 10 wins in 10 matches.
Now Roberto Mancini’s team has begun its first major international tournament in five years with a convincing 3-0 win over Turkey.
“It was important to start well and it’s satisfying for us, for the crowd and for all Italians,” Mancini said.
“It was a wonderful evening and I hope there will be many more.”
Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne both scored after an own-goal from Turkey defender Merih Demiral had given Italy the lead — all in the second half.
Demiral redirected a cross from Domenico Berardi into his own net after attempting to intercept the pass. Immobile then poked in a rebound of a shot from Leonardo Spinazzola on another play that began with Berardi, and Insigne later curled one in after a failed clearance by Turkey goalkeeper Ugurcan Çakir.
Immobile thanked his “mamma” for giving him “the sense for being in the right place at the right time” for his goal, while Insigne said the team’s togetherness was its greatest strength.
Italy dominated from the start but was denied in the first half by a superb save from Çakir and a decision by the referee not to award a penalty for an apparent handball.
Italy, which won its only European title in 1968, had never before scored more than two goals at the European Championship, according to UEFA.
The tournament, which is still being called Euro 2020, began a year late because of the pandemic.
The Stadio Olimpico was still only 25% full because of coronavirus measures and fans sat in small groups safely distanced from one another. Still, the crowd of about 16,000 was the largest gathering in Italy since the pandemic took hold.
“With people around us in the stands, it’s a whole different style of football,” said veteran Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci.
“They help us keep our hearts in it throughout the match.”
Italy appeared energized from the start and dominated possession while Turkey sat back and waited for rare counterattacks.
In the first half alone, Italy produced 13 attempts and Turkey none. By the end, Italy had 24 attempts and Turkey three — and none on goal.
“It was not our day. We started to lose the ball and couldn’t get forward,” Turkey coach Senol Günes said. “Italy were better. We lost to the better team.”
Midway through the first half, Çakir made an acrobatic save to deny Giorgio Chiellini. The Italy captain was left unmarked on a corner and directed a header toward the target before Çakir leaped up, extended his right arm high into the air and pushed the ball over the bar with his fingertips.
Italy protested vehemently for two handballs in the match, but Dutch referee Danny Makkelie ruled to play on.
First, Immobile’s shot appeared to be knocked down by a defender’s arm. Then Turkey defender Zeki Çelik stuck out his hand and stopped a cross from Spinazzola.
Çelik himself appeared to feel guilty, quickly pulling his arm behind his body after making contact with the ball. There was a VAR check several moments later but the decision to play on was upheld.
“I haven’t re-watched it yet so I really can’t comment,” Mancini said.
“We couldn’t really see what happened from the bench.”
Mancini is Italy’s standout at Euro 2020
For months, Italy’s players have been repeating the same mantra: “Our strength is in the group. We don’t have a single standout player.”
The Azzurri do have a standout coach, though, and Mancini’s impact in turning around a team that failed to qualify for the last World Cup into a European Championship contender is worthy of praise.
“We play football now, as the coach has asked us to, and that’s the thing that has changed most over these last few years under Mancini,” veteran defender Bonucci said after Italy’s win.
The victory extended the Azzurri’s unbeaten streak to 28 matches — two shy of the team record set under Vittorio Pozzo nearly a century ago — and marked the first time in Italy’s history at the European Championship (39 matches played) that it scored three goals.
Mancini pulls it all together in a way that Italy coaches rarely have since Marcello Lippi led the Azzurri to their fourth World Cup title in 2006.
It’s quite a contrast from the previous coach, Gian Piero Ventura, who lost the squad’s support during a World Cup playoff loss to Sweden when he left Insigne — considered the team’s most talented player — on the bench.
With Mancini, the more talent the better. Shedding Italy’s “catenaccio” (lockdown defence) past, he wants his team to attack constantly and “put on a show.”
In the next set of group matches, Italy stays in Rome to play Switzerland while Turkey travels to Baku to play Wales. (AP)
