Italy beats Albania after 15 mins of madness

The fourth match of the 2024 Euro cup is the second match in Group B between Italy and Albania. In a group where Spain just destroyed Croatia, Italy needed three points for a good start in the group. Albania just started their second ever Euro tournament and is probably the unluckiest with the draw. Entering a group with Spain, Croatia and Italy doesn’t offer a lot of hope to start with.

Goals galore

Both teams wanted to go off to a good start in this match. That good start completely went to Albania, who opened the score after 22 seconds! After a mistake by Italy, it was Sassuolo midfielder Nedim Bajrami who scored the first goal of the match. This was Albania’s second ever goal during a Euro tournament. Not even ten minutes later Italy equalized thanks to Alessandro Bastoni. Another five minutes later Nicolas Barella got Italy the lead, after perfectly striking a deflected ball. After 13 goals in the first three matches in this tournament, we’ve now seen 3 goals in 15 minutes. The storm calmed down the moment Italy had its desired lead. They tried to seal the deal already in the first half, but not with full force. After three goals in 15 minutes, the other 30 minutes of the first half remained goalless.

Quiet second half

Like the first match of the day in group B, there was a huge difference between the first and second half. Where the first half went crazy, this second half was a bit underwhelming. If there’s anything you can trust Italians with, it’s defending a lead. With little to no shots on target in the second half, Italy managed to get the 2-1 victory over the line. An import victory with matches against Croatia and Spain still to go. The gameplay of Italy wasn’t overly impressive apart from the 15 minutes after Albania’s goal.