Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Rome: It took 364 days longer than expected, 53 minutes of patient play and an own goal from Turkey's Merih Demiral, but Italy finally opened the scoring at the European Championships on Friday night, en route to an ultimately comfortable 3-0 win.
Ciro Immobile doubled the lead in the stadium in which he plays his club football with Lazio, before Napoli's Lorenzo Insigne made it three, as Squadra Azzurra got off to a winning start in Group A.
Despite dominating up to 70% of possession in the first half, Roberto Mancini's men had failed to break down a well-organized Turkish defense which had only conceded three goals in qualifying.
But when Domenico Berardi found space in the Turkish box just seven minutes after the restart and fired the ball across goal, Turkey defender Demiral, who plays his club football in Italy with Juventus, could do nothing but divert it over his own goal-line.
Shortly after, the Turks were cursing their luck again when goalkeeper Urgucan Cakir saved well from Leonardo Spinazzola's shot, only for the rebound to fall to Immobile who made no mistake from close range.
But Cakir couldn't blame bad luck for his misplaced pass which led to Italy's third, Insigne firing into the bottom corner after being found by Immobile.
Yellow cards followed for Caglar Söyüncü and Halil Dervisoglu in the closing stages as Turkey's discipline, which had served them so well in the first half, evaporated. They had hoped to get at least a draw out of their opening fixture, but will now be under pressure to get points on the board against Switzerland and Wales.
As for Italy, victory extended their unbeaten run to 28 games as Mancini closes in on Vittorio Pozzo's record (30 games) between 1935 and 1938. The 56-year-old has thoroughly rejuvenated Italy after the country failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup, and Friday night's second-half performance will only increase the expectations at a tournament they are co-hosting.
Football returns – a glimpse of life post-pandemic
Indeed, one day short of a year after the originally planned start date, it was perhaps fitting that this pan-continental European Championship should kick-off in Rome, the capital of the European country which suffered first, and arguably most, at the hands of the coronavirus.
After a year of lockdowns, curfews, overrun hospitals and inconsolable loss, happy faces were once again visible on the sunny streets of the Italian capital. From the Colosseum to the Pantheon to the Piazza del Popolo, and across the Tiber to the Stadio Olimpico, Romans were greeted by an unfamiliar sight: football fans, decked out in blue of Italy or the red of Turkey and enjoying the warm summer weather.
18,000 of them had tickets for the opening game at the 72,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, but they made more than enough noise through their face masks to make up for those who couldn't be there.
Isolated matches have taken place in front of supporters across Europe, including the recent Champions League and Europa League finals, but this was the most tangible feeling so far that the continent and its most popular sport were taking a step back towards normality.
