PARIS (Reuters) – Italy went behind after 12 seconds but came back to beat France 3-1 in a highly-entertaining Nations League A Group 2 opening game on Friday.
Bradley Barcola found the net in the opening minute when he caught Giovanni Di Lorenzo napping and raced into the area before curling his shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Italy levelled after half an hour with Federico Dimarco volleying home a deft back-heel flicked pass from Sandro Tonali, and the sides went in level at the break after a pulsating opening half.
Five minutes after the interval and France were rocked again with Davide Frattesi putting Italy ahead, and Giacomo Raspadori gave the visitors the breathing space they needed in the 74th minute to silence the Parc des Prince crowd.
Both sides came into the game looking for redemption after failing to impress at Euro 2024, but it was Italy who earned the much-needed victory.
It was a terrible start for the visitors with Di Lorenzo taking far too long over a back-pass and Barcola pounced to score his first international goal.
A frantic start to the game gave Italy the chance to level five minutes later but Frattesi hammered a close range header off the crossbar.
Donnarumma pulled off saves from Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise, making his debut, before Italy found the equaliser, with Tonali’s assist just as impressive as the strike which found the net.
Tonali, back in the side after serving a 10-month ban for breaching betting rules, played a beautiful one-two with Dimarco who continued his run into the box and struck a sweet left-footed volley beyond the reach of Maignan.
“Magnificent game. We were afraid that he (Tonali) wouldn’t make it to play 90 minutes, but in the end he gave two good bursts. We found a very strong player again,” Italy manager Luciano Spalletti told RAI.
Italy came out of the blocks quickest in the second half and Retegui’s perfect ball across the goal found Frattesi sliding in and his shot beat Maignan at his near post and minutes later Maignan got down to save Frattesi’s header from a corner kick.
They found the all-important third goal with two second half substitutes combining. Destiny Udogie passed to Raspadori running into the box and he went round William Saliba to fire past the oncoming Maignan.
France piled on the pressure looking for a way back but Italy held firm to take all three points.
In Thursday’s other group game, Belgium beat Israel 3-1, and in the next round of games on Monday France will host Belgium, with Italy away to Israel in Budapest.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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