Sad consolation for Italy against Turkey

Italy consoled itself, after the failure of not qualifying for the final phase of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, with a 2-3 victory against Turkey -which was also eliminated, last week, against Portugal: which achieved its pass this Tuesday against Macedonia , executioner of the Italians – in a friendly match in which the coach, Roberto Mancini, brought on the less usual players to start with the team’s renewal project.

Italy could not fail, the match was a friendly “trap” and losing would only worsen the dramatic situation that an ‘Azzurra’ is going through, capable of winning the Euro 2020 and missing out on two World Cups in a row. And the feelings were bittersweet. He won, but it started badly and ended worse.

It seemed that everything was against Mancini’s men. The first five minutes of the match had not been completed when, on the first shot of the game, Cedig Ünder hit Donnarumma below the legs to put Turkey ahead on the scoreboard. The PSG goalkeeper was not successful and could have done more to clear a shot that, despite being powerful, came out quite focused.

Scamacca and Acerbi responded from a distance around the quarter hour mark, but without creating any real danger. Italy grew, feeling more comfortable, until Tonali tamed the rhythm in the midfield and commanded with sufficiency in the first half, although without very clear chances. Turkey scared in isolation. Zaniolo was the creator of danger ‘azzurro’.

Chiellini and Biraghi did not understand each other well, in which it was the only ‘but’ of the game for the visitors, when it came to defending a left flank that the author of the Turkish goal took advantage of very well to do damage, receiving open and breaking at the back of the defense, thanks to the shipments of Calhanoglu, who read the start very well and shot behind after a quick steal.

But in the 35th minute Cristante opened the scoring for the current European champion and leveled the match with a powerful header. Biraghi bounced a precise ball from the left wing into the area that found a quality definer in the figure of Cristante, with a powerful and placed shot, thanks to the turn of his neck, which went in close to the post.

Almost without time to assimilate it, Turkey conceded the second. This time it was Raspadori, who took advantage of the steal and pass from a great Tonali, who put the ‘azzurra’ ahead, in the best minutes of the game, when there were only a few minutes left to go to the locker room tunnel.

Donnarumma was about to fail again in the crash. The ghosts of the error with the PSG shirt against Real Madrid appeared when the goalkeeper was overconfident and hit Unal’s head with a ball that, luckily for ‘Gigi’, bounced off his face, but had caught the door.

However, the goalkeeper redeemed himself from the error with two spectacular hands that deflected the volley, in the first half, and the lack, already in the second half, of a Calanhoglu that ended up somewhat desperate with the stops of the former Milan player.

In 1970 what seemed like the sentence arrived. With the game already slowing down, Raspadori sealed his brace as he rescued a loose ball in the box and executed – with more power than placement – to secure the calming goal for an Italy in need of victory.

But the Turks pressed in the final minutes, who were very close to obtaining their reward. Especially Dursun, who even managed to penetrate Donnarumma’s goal, collecting a rejection of a shot by his teammate Soyuncu coming out of a corner, and who almost got the equalizer on the scoreboard if it weren’t for the stretch of the Italian goalkeeper, who repelled the striker’s shot.

Italy wins, but is not redeemed from its resounding world fall. They comfortably beat Turkey for much of the match, but a poor start and finish of the match could have tipped the balance against them.

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