Italy gets scared, but beats Albania in Euro Cup debut;

Italy began its journey in the European Cup going through trouble against Albania. At 23 seconds, the “underdogs”, led by Brazilian coach Sylvinho, opened the scoring after a lateral error made by Dimarco.

Albanian midfielder Bajrami took advantage and scored the fastest goal in the history of the competition.

But the current Euro champions took control of the match again and managed to turn things around in the first stage, with Bastoni and Barella, confirming their favoritism and guaranteeing the three points for the Azzurri in the balanced Group B, which still includes Spain and Croatia.

Albania had already surprised the football world by managing to qualify for Euro 2024 . And in their debut against Italy, current champions, the team led by Brazilian coach Sylvinho showed that they could be troublesome.

After just 23 seconds, the Italian Dimarco took a throw-in into his own area and the Albanian midfielder Bajrami arrived before the defense and shot hard to open the score and cheer the fans of the debuting country who filled the Signal stadium. Iduna Park in Dortmund. This was the fastest goal in the history of the competition.

After the scare, Italy managed to regain control of the game and it didn’t take long to achieve a comeback. In the 11th minute, defender Bastoni rose higher than his opponents to equalize.

The two-time Euro champions continued to apply pressure. In the 16th minute of the first half, Barella took advantage of a rebound from the defense and hit a beautiful finish from outside the area to turn the game around.

Second time

After managing to take the lead, the Italians continued to have the best chances of the game and missed great opportunities to extend their advantage. Azzura’s attack stopped at the post and goalkeeper Strakosha .

In the 44th minute of the final stage, Albania almost equalized. Manaj received a throw, went in front of goalkeeper Donnarumma, but ended up wasting it. Final: Italy 2×1 Albania.

In the second round of Group B, Italy has a classic against Spain . The game takes place next Thursday (20), at 4pm (Brasília time), at Veltins-Arena.

A day earlier, Albania faces Croatia, at 10 am (Brasília time), at the Volkspark stadium.