Italy drew 1-1 at home with Germany in their debut Nations League campaign after a humiliating 3-0 loss to Argentina in the 2022 Finalissima.
After failing to qualify for this year’s World Cup in Qatar, Italy decided to give several young players a chance on the team.
Wilfried Gnonto, an 18-year-old substitute, put up Lorenzo Pellegrini for a 70th-minute goal.
Germany quickly equalized, with Joshua Kimmich scoring to extend Hansi Flick’s unbeaten streak to ten games.
Germany’s next Group A3 match is at home against England, who were defeated 1-0 in Hungary earlier on Saturday. Both games will be played on June 7th, with Italy hosting the Hungarians.
It’s been a trying few months for European champions Italy, but fresh shoots are emerging from the ashes of their failure to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
The team that faced Germany was devoid of practically all of the names that are familiar to most fans outside of Italy, with Gianluigi Donnarumma, a 23-year-old goalkeeper with 44 caps, being the most experienced player.
Alessandro Bastoni of Inter Milan and Davide Frattesi and Gianluca Scamacca of Sassuolo, on the other hand, are raw jewels to polish.
The performance was far from flawless, especially in the jittery first ten minutes, but it was full of effort from a team that grew into the competition and even dared to seize the lead.
Gnonto, a fast-rising adolescent forward, was the source of their first goal. He started his career at Inter Milan, thrilled Roberto Mancini with his performances at FC Zurich in Switzerland last season, and enthralled the fans with a direct run and a superb cross for Pellegrini to poke in.
Italy could have been celebrating triumph if the advantage had lasted longer than three minutes, but their inexperience showed when they switched off in the aftermath of their goal, allowing a shrewd German side to regroup.
Kimmich could not miss Jonas Hoffman’s cross that dropped to him in the box.
Flick is unlikely to have learned anything new about his established team but will have been impressed by their willingness to dig deep when necessary to achieve a goal.
It’s all about fine-tuning for Germany in Qatar. It is important for Italy to look beyond the end of this year and towards future big tournament qualification campaigns. This is a good start.
Finalissima 2022: How Italy Lost
Italy looked like a team that hadn’t qualified for the World Cup after losing 3-0 to Argentina in the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions Final at Wembley on Wednesday evening.
The matchup between the Copa America and European Championship winners has sparked a lot of interest since it was announced, but only one side appeared to be the continental champions on the night. With a weird XI fielded by Roberto Mancini, Italy struggled from the outset, and the Azzurri were presumably glad to lose by only three goals.
Inter’s Lautaro Martinez was set up for the opener by Lionel Messi’s magic. Angel Di Maria, who has been linked with a move to Juventus, added a wonderful second by dinking over Gianluigi Donnarumma of Paris Saint-Germain, who had another night to forget for Italy. Late on, Paulo Dybala added a third goal.
Italy lost its composure in the second half and was resorted to making petulant challenges. The Azzurri did well to finish the game without receiving a red card.
The only bright spot on the night was perhaps Leonardo Spinazzola’s return from the bench to play for La Nazionale once more.
