Italy had taken the lead at Wembley with Gianluca Scamacca’s debut goal, but England came back to win 3-1, so the Azzurri must fight it out for EURO 2024 qualification with Ukraine.
There were three points separating the teams after the 2-1 English victory in Naples back in March. Between injuries and the betting scandal, the Azzurri missed Sandro Tonali, Nicolò Zaniolo, Federico Chiesa, Mateo Retegui, Ciro Immobile, Mattia Zaccagni, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Matteo Politano and more. Destiny Udogie got his first start just days after his debut, while Gianluca Scamacca and Davide Frattesi returned to the starting XI. England missed Bukayo Saka, Luke Shaw and Ben Chilwell, with Milan defender Fikayo Tomori cut from the bench.
Marcus Rashford fired a free kick over the bar, but it was Italy who took the lead with Scamacca’s first ever senior goal for his country. It was moved from left to right, where Giovanni Di Lorenzo pulled back from the by-line, Davide Frattesi only scuffed it and the pass kept going for Scamacca to fire into the roof of the net from six yards.
Scamacca also drilled wide and Jude Bellingham’s header was easy for Gigio Donnarumma, but Di Lorenzo gave away a penalty when making a lunging tackle on Bellingham. Harry Kane sent Donnarumma the wrong way to convert and equalise.
The Azzurri had a very similar move to the goal, but this time John Stones got back to stop Frattesi tapping in the Di Lorenzo pull-back.
Donnarumma had to make the save on Marcus Rashford at the back post, while Jordan Pickford got down to parry the Destiny Udogie strike, as Berardi and Di Lorenzo were unable to turn in the rebound.
Phil Foden had penalty appeals but was judged to run into Udogie, while Kalvin Phillips blasted over from outside the area.
England turned the game around with another moment of inspiration from Real Madrid star Bellingham, as his flick to get past midfield sparked the counter-attack, with Rashford then cutting inside past both Di Lorenzo and Udogie to drill left-footed into the far bottom corner.
Rashford curled over and Scamacca fired straight at Pickford, but England should’ve been down to 10 men on 65 minutes when Kalvin Phillips already booked and going in very high on Barella’s ankle. Instead, it was Scalvini who was carded for pointing that out.
Donnarumma was right behind a sudden Foden snapshot, as the goal and red card incident seemed to knock the confidence out of the Azzurri.
It was even more evident when England added a third, as Alessandro Bastoni made the first error on the long ball, then Kane turned Scalvini to beat Donnarumma, who was rushing out to narrow the angle.
Moise Kean had a couple of attempts late on, but without really troubling Pickford.
England 3-1 Italy
Scamacca 15 (I), Kane pen 31 (E), Rashford 57 (E), Kane 77 (E)
Player statistic
| Kalvin Phillips |  |
8' | ||
| 10' | |
Destiny Udogie | ||
| 15' |  |
Gianluca Scamacca (Assist: Giovanni Di Lorenzo) | ||
| 30' | |
Giovanni Di Lorenzo | ||
| Harry Kane |  |
32' |
| Marcus Rashford (Assist: Jude Bellingham) |
|
57' | ||
| 65' | |
Giorgio Scalvini | ||
| Harry Kane | |
77' |
Match statistic
Frattesi（worst), Scalvini and Scamacca were disaster. Why no anchor man in the middlefield？
Losing to England – and twice. That has happened since the 1970s.