Italy 2
Albania 1
ITALY AVOIDED AN opening night humiliation in Dortmund with either a champions’ inherent knack for doing just enough or else the unconvincing fortune of the pretender – given it’s only the first game of their Euros defence, you can still take your pick.
They fell behind after a bewildering 23 seconds to Albania but won the game with quick first-half counter-punches from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella, and had Gianluigi Donnarumma to thank for an 89th-minute save to preserve their win and leave their profligacy unpunished.
The first-minute delirium and that last-gasp opportunity will be enough sustenance to take a very limited Albania into their remaining games against Croatia and Spain, where they must hope to beat the former if they have any hope remaining by the time they play the latter.
The fans of these two friendly neighbours cavorted in good humour before the game, in the kind of earnest, drunken goofiness that is the life of these tournaments. At one stage opposing fans lined either side of a Dortmund street, until one Albanian fan sidled his way into the contested territory to slowly unholster a full packet of spaghetti, which he then snapped in half as Italian fans fell on the ground in horror like Don Corleone beholding the bullet-ridden corpse of his son.
This was only Albania’s second-ever Euros, and first since 2016, and so their fans flooded into Germany determined to make the most of it. Their supporters did here what Irish fans did in Giants Stadium back in 1994, snapping up virtually all of the allocation. With temporary seating installed on the Yellow Wall, the capacity was reduced to around 62,000, with Albanian fans getting their hands on roughly 50,000 of the tickets on sale.
It meant this ground’s trademark yellow was instead replaced by great swathes of a deep, adrenal red that thrummed to kick-off and then exploded within 23 seconds of the whistle. Albania kicked off and launched the ball long to instantly concede a throw-in so as to allow both themselves and the game assume whatever posture manager Sylvinho had counseled. A slouching Federico Dimarco didn’t get that message, tossing a bafflingly bad throw too short of Bastoni, which allowed Nedim Bajrami to pounce and slam the ball into the net for what was the fastest goal ever scored at the European Championships.
Cue all manner of vessel-popping bedlam: flares cracked; beer cups rained down on the press box; all in red tried to suck in great gulps of whatever magic had certainly materialised in the air. We received reliable reports that the only TV viewer left at home in Tirana had a great old time watching on.
But if the backdrop to this game would remind an Irish fan of the 1994 World Cup, what happened on the pitch was redolent of the great unmentionable, Euro 2012. This time it’s Albania who have were drawn with Italy, Spain, and Croatia, and some Albanian fans were quickly left wishing they’d held onto whatever was left of that beer. Italy were level within 10 minutes – with Alessandro Bastoni unmarked at the back post to nod in a Lorenzo Pelligrini cross that itself came from a short corner – and another eight minutes later, Italy led, as Nicolo Barella sliced across a ping-ponging ball from the edge of the box to bulge the net.
The pizza slice of blue behind the goal – caught in the jaws of red all around them - celebrated but the night’s atmosphere hissed and seeped away into the sky. From there the game took on its expected shape, as Italy hogged possession and Albania sat deep and compact. Italy’s passing was neat but rarely threatening, and they relied on Federico Chiesa to break the game open.
Chiesa was one of only five players in Italy’s line-up to have started the final at Wembley three years ago. It was a game he sadly did not finish, having suffered a serious knee injury. What a joy, then, to see him back to to his best tonight, flying past opponents with that trademark, loose-limbed skate. Chiesa usually cuts in from the left, but tonight he provided some vital right-sided width in the absence of the injured Domenico Berardi. His stunning, whipped cross just before half-time should have resulted in a third Italian goal, but the unmarked Pellegrini missed his diving header and shouldered the ball wide instead. It should have been three before that, mind, with Davide Frattesi dinking the ball against the post and Thomas Strakosha denying Gianluca Scamacca from inside the box.
By the time Chiesa limped gingerly from the field with a dead leg with 13 minutes remaining, Italy had still not found the third goal to take the last thing the Albanian crowd had left: hope.
It wasn’t that Italy missed a great bundle of chances after the break, it’s that they didn’t create many, and were instead content to pass around the fringes of Albania’s deep block, their cutting edge blunted as Chiesa’s influence waned. The Albanian fans meanwhile clung madly to whatever they could find: a corner here, a deep free-kick there; it was enough.
Albania’s players were regrettably not good enough to play around Italy’s press, though, and any hopes that striker Armando Broja might provide an out-ball were forlorn as he lumbered tamely about looking exactly like a guy who hasn’t played more than half an hour in a club game since mid-January.
Italy continued to take their foot from the accelerator in the final quarter-hour, but ultimately the margins they played with were terrifyingly tight. With the fourth official prepping the board to announce four minutes of stoppage time, Albania larruped a ball into the Albanian box which substitute Rey Manaj let roll off his chest and onto his feet to allow him dink the onrushing, splayed Donnarumma. That the ball clipped his ribcage was the difference between Italian triumph and disaster: the ball took approximately eight years to bounce-bounce-bounce-and-dribble by the wrong side of the post.
It was a moment of gorgeous, unbearable agony for Albania.
In other words, it’s what will keep them coming back.
Italy: Gianluigi Donnarumma (captain); Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori, Federico Dimarco (Mateo Darmian, 83′); Jorginho, Nicolo Barella; Lorenzo Pellegrini (Bryan Cristante, 77′); Davide Frattesi, Federico Chiesa (Andrea Cambiaso, 77′); Gianluca Scamacca (Mateo Retegui, 83′)
Albania: Thomas Strakosha; Elseid Hysaj, Berat Djimsiti (captain), Arlind Ajeti, Mario Mitaj; Kristjan Asllani, Ylber Ramadani, Nedim Bajrami; Jasir Asani (Arbër Hoxha, 68′) , Armando Broja (Rey Manaj, 76′), Taulant Seferi (Qazim Laçi, 68′)
Referee: Felix Zwayer (Germany)
