Italy might have made a poor start in their UEFA Nations League encounter with France considering after Just 13 seconds to Bradley Barcola, but they rebounded in the superb fashion heading, back with three strikes from Federico Dimarco, Davide Frattesi and Gimacomo Raspadori respectively to stun Didier Deschamps’ hosts. Real Madrid’s player Kylian Mbappe failed to fire for Les Bleus.
Italy came from behind to beat France 3-1 at the Parc des Princes in Paris to get their UEFA Nations League campaign off to a flyer. France had a dream start when Paris Saint Germain player Bradely Barcola stole the ball from the feet of Giovanni Di Lorenzo before darting into the box and striking his side ahead after just 13 seconds for his first international goal.
the result is a boost for Luciano Spalletti’s team after the poor showing at Euro 2024, when their defense of the title was ended limply by Switzerland in the last 16.
Spalletti said: “scoring a goal after 13 seconds could have driven us crazy but we are very good in the way we reacted, we kept our focus and did some great things beyond the goals. We were giants tonight.”
The visitors pulled level on the half-hour mark though when Federico Dimarco and Sandro Tonali combined beautifully. In a one-touch move, Dimarco found the Newcastle midfielder, who flicked the ball back for Dimarco to pull the trigger with a fierce volley which nestled into the far top corner.
Five minutes into the second half, Frattesi made up for his earlier miss to put the Italians ahead when he met Mateo Retegui’s low cross to steer the ball past a helpless Mike Maignan and into the net.
Giacomo Raspadori made sure of the three points for the visitors when he received the ball in the box after some brilliance from Destiny Udogie on the left, before busting past William Saliba to slot home Italy’s third.
Mateo Retegui did not get his goal, but he made himself a handful for the France defence. The experienced partnership of Saliba and Ibrahim Konate struggled to contain him for large parts of the game as he provided a constant threat both from the flanks and down the middle. Despite blanking, he did find an assist to set up Frattesi’s second goal with a pinpoint cross which he flashed across the penalty box for his team-mate to guide home.
