Luciano Spalletti’s Italy showed a number of positives in their in-house friendly with the U20 squad, picking up a 3-1 win.
The Azzurri left a little to be desired in their recent friendly match against Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey, being held to a 0-0 draw at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna on Tuesday evening, giving the coach and his staff some indications ahead of the European Championship.
Italy will play out their final pre-tournament friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 9th, before travelling off to Germany. At the European Championship, Spalletti’s side will face Albania on June 15th and Spain on the 20th before tackling Croatia on the 24th to close out Group B.
Italy win friendly against U20
Using players who didn’t feature against Turkey or who only played a few minutes, Spalletti set Italy up with a three-man defence, deploying Ivan Provedel in goal, Federico Gatti, Alessandro Buongiorno, and Riccardo Calafiori at the back, Raoul Bellanova, Davide Frattesi, Nicolo Fagioli, Michael Folorunsho and Matteo Darmian in midfield, and Giacomo Raspadori and Gianluca Scamacca up front.
Samuele Ricci and Stephan El Shaarawy took to the pitch for the U20 squad in the friendly at Coverciano and Provedel saved a penalty from the latter in the first half. The senior side entered the half-time break 1-0 up after a goal from Gianluca Scamacca.
Raspadori doubled the senior Azzurri side’s lead in the second half, making it 2-0 after an assist from Frattesi. The U20 responded after an error from Bellanova, allowing Juventus’ Nikola Sekulov to make it 2-1. El Shaarawy, who had switched sides at half-time, closed out the win a few minutes later, ending things 3-1.
Our game against the U20s ends in a 3-1 win. Pleasure training with you, boys 🤝 #Azzurri #VivoAzzurropic.twitter.com/JkZZhm1bHj
— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) June 5, 2024