The Italy U-21s came out on top of a routine 2-0 victory over their counterparts from Serbia in an international friendly on Friday afternoon thanks to a second half brace from Simone Mulattieri.
The Azzurrini are now undefeated in their previous 11 outings across all competitions in a run that stretches back to September 2021.
Head coach Paolo Nicolato was without a number of his first choice players heading into the game in the historic city of Backa Topola with Simone Ricci unavailable and Juventus regular Nicolo Fagioli struggling with an ankle injury.
Lining up in a 3-5-2, Italy started comfortably, but failed to produce any clear cut opportunities in the first half of play.
In response to a quiet opening 45 minutes, Nicolato made a pair of substitutions at the break, bringing on Alessandro Zanoli and Fabiano Parisi in place of Antonino Gallo and Niccolo Pierozzi.
Less than eight minutes after the re-start, the young Italians found the breakthrough via Mulattieri, who capitalised on an early increase in chances provided compared to the first-half stalemate.
15 minutes later, Mulattieri popped up again, dispatching a well taken right footed finish into the far bottom corner to double his personal tally and his team’s advantage on the night.
From there on in, Italy were comfortable in seeing the remaining 20 minutes of the game out and were posed minimal threats by their Serbian competitors.
In the end, Italy came out on top in terms of possession, passes completed, shots taken and most importantly goals scored.
A late change was made five minutes before the end of regular time however, with goalkeeper Elia Caprile being brought off through injury and was replaced by Alessandro Sorrentino of Monza.
Nicolato and his side will be hoping to build on Friday evening’s success when they take on Ukraine back in Italy on Monday evening, which will kick off at 19.00 GMT.