Italy arrived in Germany as defending champion of the Euro Cup, with the aim of lifting this title for the third time and becoming the biggest winner in history. Those of Luciano Spalletti They are part of the most complex group in the tournament that has Spain, Croatia and Albania like the other members. On paper, her debut in Zone B was the simplest but reality gave her a slap in the face.
In it Signal Iduna Parkthe home of Borussia Dortmund, Albania surprised before the minute to the current owner of the crown. The throw-in from the middle of those led by Brazilian Sylvinho – former Barcelona and Manchester City – led to a long cross ball that found no teammates and meant a side in the defensive zone for the Italians.
Federico Dimarco took charge of reactivating the game, but made the decision to throw the ball with his hands into his own area looking for Alessandro Bastoni. The Inter scorer was surprised by his teammate’s pass, he was unable to react in time and the one who did take advantage of the inattention was Nedim Bajrami, who controlled and hit a high right hand to the post of Gianluigi Donnarumma, who did not react. It was just 23 seconds into the game.
According to the statistics company Optthe midfielder who plays for Italian club Sassuolo In this way he signed the fastest goal in the history of the Euro Cup. His record surpassed by a wide margin that obtained by Russian Dmitri Kirichenko against Greece in 2004 (1 minute and 7 seconds), that of the Swede Emil Forsber against Poland in 2021 (1 minute and 22 seconds) and that of the Danish Yussuf Poulsen against Belgium in 2021 (1 minute and 39 seconds).
After that shock, Spalletti’s men were able to react immediately: Bastoni He scored the tie 11 minutes into the first stage and Nicolò Barella made it 2-1 at 16.
It must be taken into account that this competitive Group B began with Spain’s 3-0 win over Croatia in the Olympic Stadium from Berlin, in the second shift of the Saturday day. Next Wednesday, June 19, the Croats will meet the Albanians and, the next day, the Spaniards will play. Italians in the Veltins-Arena from the city of Gelsenkirchen.
The closure in this area will come on Monday, June 24 with the commitment in unison in the Duesseldorf Arena (Albania-Spain) and in the Leipzig Stadium (Croatia-Italy).
This is Albania’s second participation in a European Championship after having been part of the 2016 edition that was held in France. At that time they fell squarely against Swisssuffered a 2-0 defeat against the local and they took a victory on the last date 1-0 against Romaniawhich in any case was not enough for them to advance to the next phase.
On this occasion, Sylvinho’s team – who has the Argentine Pablo Zabaleta as a field assistant – they managed to get the ticket to this Euro 2024 after finallyalize as leaders in your area in the classification process: they were above Czech Republic, Poland, Moldova and Faroe Islands in your group.
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