Italy made sure they collected all three points on opening night in Euro 2020. They beat Turkey comprehensively by three goals without any reply.
Match Infomation
Turkey 0-3 Italy
Goalscorers:
- Merih Demiral 53′ (OG)
- Ciro Immobile 66′
- Lorenzo Insigne 79′
Man of the Match:
Leonardo Spinazzola – Italy
Turkey 0-3 Italy match recap:
To cut a long story short; there was basically one team that showed up to play football while the other came to put 11 men behind the ball and hope nothing gets through.
Italy, from the first whistle to the final kick of the ball, displayed they were not leaving with anything less than three points. They were all over the Turks, giving them no time to rest on the ball.
Besides keeping Hakan Çalhanoğlu and co. in their own half for most of the encounter, the Azzurri won every battle up front, in the middle of the park, at the back, and even the second ball. Their 24 shots at goal compared to Turkey’s 11 is a true reflection of the 90 minutes of football.
Turkey Player Ratings:
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Uğurcan Çakır – 5.5; Zeki Çelik – 5.5; Merih Demiral – 6.5; Çağlar Söyüncü 5.5; Okay Yokuşlu – 6.5; Ozan Tufan – 6.0; Kenan Karaman – 6.0; Hakan Çalhanoğlu – 6.2; Yusuf Yazıcı – 6.0; Umut Meraş – 5.5; Burak Yılmaz 5.0;
Subs: Dervisoglu – 6.1; Ünder – 6.5; Ayhan – 6.0; Kahveci – 6.0
Italy Player Ratings:
Gianluigi Donnarumma – 6.5; Giorgio Chiellini – 7.5; Leonardo Spinazzola – 8.0; Manuel Locatelli – 7.0; Jorginho 8.0; Lorenzo Insigne – 7.9; Domenico Berardi – 7.0; Ciro Immobile – 8.2; Nicolò Barella – 7.0; Leonardo Bonucci – 7.0; Alessandro Florenzi 6.5
Subs: Chiesa – 6.0; Di Lorenzo 6.5; Bernardeschi – 6.0; Belotti – 6.0
What we’ve learnt from Italy’s victory
The Azzurri are here to fight and Roberto Mancini could have been that missing ingredient they’ve needed to inject extra flavour with a powerful punch.
Yes, after just one outstanding showing it sounds extremely premature to rate them as a firm favourite this tournament.
But the manner in which they put their opposition to bed proves they will be a tough outing for smaller countries and other top contenders. The question of how long can they keep it up comes to mind.
Turkey on the other hand, surely can do much better than they did and have the quality to do so. The defence suffered somehow without Ozan Kabak. A better attacking game is required – and sooner rather than later.
If they are to having any sort of say in this year’s events, the big names in the team need to pull up their socks.