Italy scored three times in the second half and dominated Turkey in the first game of the European soccer championship.
Italy scored three times in the second half and dominated Turkey in the first game of the European soccer championship. Today’s game: Italy 3, Turkey 0 Italy opens a delayed championship with a welcome statement of intent. Full time: A second-half flurry gets Italy off to the start it wanted. Italy and Turkey are scoreless at halftime. A Euro 2020 betting favorite? It’s France, but not by much. Euro 2020 started with a statement of intent. Well, technically it started with a small car driving a soccer ball onto the field at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, but the statement of intent followed pretty quickly. Italy’s 3-0 win against Turkey in the tournament’s opening game does not guarantee anything; this is still a young team, a work in progress, one that perhaps lacks the star power of France, England and Portugal, among others. Italy came in to Euro 2020 with momentum, but it was always somewhat fragile: an early setback could easily have undone three years of good work. Instead, of course, that momentum will have been redoubled by swatting a decent — if somewhat callow — Turkish team aside. And more broadly, it gave the competition as a whole what it needed: an entertaining, attractive opener, one that will hopefully serve to set the tone for the remainder of the group stage. The structure — in which only eight teams will be eliminated at the first hurdle — incentivizes a safety-first approach; that Italy did not take one will, with any luck, set the tone for everyone else. — Rory Smith POSTGAME “It was important to start well and it’s satisfying for us, for the crowd and for all Italians,” Italy Coach Roberto Mancini said. “It was a wonderful evening and I hope there will be many more.” 90’ Italy has subbed liberally and now just wants to get out with its ankles intact. Two quick yellows for Turkey prove that last bit won’t be easy. INSIGNE MAKES IT THREE! ???????? pic.twitter.com/zLT6xN1eOv 84’ Turkey has some very real goal-difference worries now as it prepares for its next two group games, against Wales and Switzerland. The two group winners and the best four third-place teams will advance to the knockouts, but they’ve dug a big hole for themselves today. 79’ Goal! Insigne! That’ll do it. Italy carved up the Turks on that one after goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir passes the ball directly to an Italian beyond his penalty area. In a flash, Italy is in, sweeping the ball into the center and then out wide to an open Insigne. He opens his body and buries the shot past Cakir. It’s the first time Italy has scored three in a game at the Euros. And within a minute Isigne and Immobile, who had the second, are subbed off to rest for the next game. Job well done by both of them. ITALY LEAD 2-0! ???????? Ciro Immobile with his first goal of #EURO2020 ???? pic.twitter.com/osQAfxYBMr 66’ GOAL! Ciro Immoblie pounces on a rebound to double Italy’s lead. A poacher’s goal from an Italian poacher, and one who has scored a ton of them in this stadium for Lazio. Is that enough for Italy to lock this down? It might be. 53’ GOAL! Oh that’s tragic for Turkey. Berardi drives into the Turkish penalty area and, taking advantage of a defender’s slip, creates a bit of space and rockets a cross across the front of the goal. It slams into defender Merih Demiral, who could do nothing to get out of the way, and ricochets into the net. Italy leads,1-0, and hopefully the game will come to life. THE FIRST GOAL OF #EURO2020 IS AN OWN GOAL! ???? pic.twitter.com/fkqykh0g4q 50’ A good stat from our colleague Tariq Panja: The last time an opening game finished 0-0 was played in Italy in 1968. And Italy ended up winning the tournament. UPDATE: Never mind, Tariq. 46’ Two changes at halftime, one for each team. Giovanni Di Lorenzo replaces Florenzi on Italy’s back line, which might signal a different look for its defense, and Cengiz Under is on for Yazici up front for Turkey. 45’ Another call for a handball against Turkey, and another sweep of the hand from our referee, who waves on play. Celik, the Turkish defender, definitely handled the cutback pass at the end line but not in an unnatural way, apparently. It doesn’t matter, though. The halftime whistle has gone, and we are scoreless at the break in Rome. Good riddance to that first 45. Turkey’s first-half shot chart. #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/EZ7zZ7JxC5 40’ A scoreless halftime looms, and with it — hopefully — a tactical change or two that might open this up a bit in the second half. Italy, it must be said, has definitely had the better of the last 15 minutes. 23’ Italy, in quick succession, appeals for a handball against Soyuncu (the Dutch referee says no, correctly); has an open header by Chiellini saved (best chance so far); and then flubs the ensuing corner. 18’ Insigne with the first real chance of the game, but his curling shot from the left was always headed wide of the right post. 15’ Neither Turkey nor Italy seems inclined to gamble early. There has been some teasing on the wings, and Yilmaz just got loose on the right, but crosses have been off-target or easily dealt with at both ends, and both teams have their cover — in midfield and at the back in good order. Pregame Turkey and Italy have announced their lineups for the opening game. Capacity at the Stadio Olimpico is limited to 16,000 fans today, so expect the cheers from the crowd — mixed with fans of both countries — to be more muted than usual. Turkey: Ugurcan Cakir, Zeki Celik, Merih Demiral, Caglar Soyuncu, Ozan Tufan, Okay Yokuslu, Umut Meras, Yusuf Yazici, Hakan Calhanoglu, Burak Yilmaz, Kenan Karaman Italy: Gianliugi Donnarumma; Alessandro Florenzi, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Spinazzola; Nicolo Barella, Jorginho, Manuel Locatelli; Domenico Berardi, Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne #EURO2020 The 11 #Azzurri selected by Roberto Mancini for tonight’s opener! ???? #ITA #TURITA #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/WggaZH1ip1 Chiellini,36, is hardly a surprise, but his presence is a link to Italy’s past failure in major tournaments. While veterans like Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli and Daniele De Rossi saw a missed World Cup in 2018 as a moment to step aside from the national team, to make way for others, Chiellini said this week that he saw it as a chance to double down. “We really want to make things right, to make Italy a contender in a big international tournament again,” Chiellini said Thursday.
