Italy 2-1 Ukraine: Frattesi gives Spalletti his first victory

Davide Frattesi bagged a brace and Manuel Locatelli thumped the crossbar, as Italy were able to get the crucial three points against Ukraine in this EURO 2024 qualifier.

The Azzurri were held 1-1 in North Macedonia on Luciano Spalletti’s debut, but added Sandro Tonali, Matteo Politano and Gianluca Mancini to the injury list, having already lost Federico Chiesa and Lorenzo Pellegrini. The coach made five changes, including Giacomo Raspadori as centre-forward. Ukraine were fresh from a draw with England and missed Ruslan Malinovskyi, Oleksandr Tymchyk and Mykola Shaparenko.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo blasted over from the edge of the area and Raspadori couldn’t keep the finish down from six yards, while Federico Dimarco’s volley was charged down.

The deadlock was broken following a costly slip from Georgiy Sudakov under pressure from Mattia Zaccagni down the left flank, who laid it off for Frattesi to drill home his second senior Italy goal.

Nicolò Barella had an attempt charged down on a Frattesi assist and Raspadori volleyed over as Frattesi knocked down the Federico Dimarco cross.

Frattesi got in the way of a Zaniolo strike from the edge of the area, then managed to turn the rebound under the goalkeeper while slipping over from 12 yards. The offside flag was up, but VAR showed that Konoplya was keeping everyone level, so the goal stood for Frattesi’s brace.

This means Frattesi had participated in four of Italy’s last five competitive goals, scoring three and assisting one.

Gigio Donnarumma was called into action to beat away a ferocious Dovbyk strike after it was given away cheaply, while Raspadori was denied by Buschchan.

Ukraine did pull one back when Donnarumma made a sensational reaction save on Dovbyk, but Dimarco’s attempted clearance was in effect an assist for Andriy Yarmolenko’s tap-in.

The visitors pushed hard after the restart, Viktor Tsygankov’s strike charged down and Dovbyk unable to score from a tight angle, while Zaccagni scuffed the finish laid off by Zaniolo.

Raspadori thought he had scored with an angled drive after Zaniolo pounced on the poor Bushchan clearance, but the goalkeeper made up for his error with a fantastic fingertip save.

Giorgio Scalvini’s towering header on a Cristiano Biraghi corner skimmed the crossbar, while Bushchan got down to palm away the Zaniolo daisy-cutter.

Manuel Locatelli came so close moments later, his rocket off the crossbar after a couple of other attempts were charged down in the box.

Ukraine remained in the game to the end, Konoplya beating Wilfried Gnonto for a header wide at the back post, while Gnonto’s poor first touch let him down clear on goal.

There was another opportunity in stoppages when Mateo Retegui won back the ball to set up Riccardo Orsolini, but the referee judged the Mykolenko sliding tackle to be clean.

Italy 2-1 Ukraine

Frattesi 12, 29 (I), Yarmolenko 41 (U)