Italy suffered a damning 5-2 defeat at the hands of Germany, as the Nations League experiments finally caught up with Roberto Mancini.
They changed nine players from the side that drew 0-0 with England, keeping only Davide Frattesi and Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Azzurri were top of the group with five points, while Die Mannschaft had drawn all three matches so far.
This result drops them down from first to third, because Marco Rossi’s Hungary earned a shock 4-0 victory away to rock bottom England.
Leroy Sane drilled just wide, but Manuel Neuer needed a desperate double save with his legs on Giacomo Raspadori and the Willy Gnonto follow-up, as a Matteo Politano cross wreaked havoc.
Germany took the lead when Joshua Kimmich was left totally unmarked to burst through the centre and latch onto a David Raum cross from the left, given time and space to control and beat Gigio Donnarumma from 10 yards.
Bryan Cristante’s looping header was just over after a free kick and Raspadori almost pounced on a poor Sule back-pass, but Donnarumma needed a fine save to deny Hofmann after a good passing move with his angled drive.
Sane fired straight at Donnarumma, then the goalkeeper had to make a much tougher save on Werner at the near top corner.
Italy were struggling badly on a tactical level, with only 34 per cent possession and huge gaps in defence, so Roberto Mancini replaced Politano with Luiz Felipe Ramos and moved to three at the back. It was the Lazio defender’s international debut.
The tactical change didn’t help straight away, because Bastoni gave away a penalty with a ridiculous push on Hofmann. Ilkay Gundogan blasted his spot-kick into the roof of the net to put Germany 2-0 up going into the break.
Atalanta defender Giorgio Scalvini and Verona winger Gianluca Caprari came on for their senior Italy debuts. The Azzurri seemed far more aggressive, within five minutes Bryan Cristante and a Scalvini header whistling wide.
However, Bastoni’s nightmare continued with another error on a low cross, Spinazzola could only clear as far as Thomas Muller, who fired in from 12 yards.
Neuer made an extraordinary save from point-blank range on Barella, but the Inter midfielder was offside on Caprari’s through ball anyway.
Werner scuffed straight at Donnarumma and Caprari failed to make the acrobatic volley, but Germany added a fourth when Federico Dimarco kept Serge Gnabry onside, the cushioned knock-back an assist that even Werner couldn’t miss from close range.
Moments later, Donnarumma made a mess of his clearance under pressure on a Bastoni back-pass and Gnabry pounced to set up another Werner tap-in. It was the first time Italy had conceded five goals since May 1957 against Yugoslavia.
Italy did get a consolation goal, the first for 18-year-old Wilfried Gnonto, who was ready on the rebound when Dimarco’s angled drive was only parried by Neuer.
The final minutes were also affected by several pitch invaders who got away from the rather unimpressive stewards, while Anton Stach missed a sixth goal by inches in stoppages.
Dimarco almost made it 5-2 with a stunning, swerving strike that Neuer acrobatically palmed out of the far top corner.
Bastoni did get the goal eventually, his header at the near post on Dimarco’s corner.
Germany 5-2 Italy
Kimmich 10 (G), Gundogan pen 45 (G), Muller 52 (G), Werner 68, 69 (G), Gnonto 78 (I), Bastoni 94 (I)
Germany: Neuer; Klostermann, Sule (Tah 87), Rudiger, Raum; Gundogan (Stach 88), Kimmich; J Hofmann (Gnabry 64), Muller, Sane; Werner
Italy: Donnarumma; Calabria, Mancini (Scamacca , Bastoni, Spinazzola (Dimarco 66); Frattesi (Scalvini 46), Cristante (Caprari 46), Barella; Politano (Luiz Felipe 44), Raspadori, Gnonto
Ref: Kovacs (ROU)
How can anyone be shocked!
England losing 4 nil to Hungary makes up for the disappointment.
Watching Italy was a little like watching Juve.
Just fire mainicini …he doesn’t deserve to stay
This match needs to be taken as a hard lesson and needs to be reacted upon in the right way.
We must keep powering on with the Azzurri and one day we can rise again.
Question marks about Mancini
I said after WC failure that Mancini is not the man to rebuild a new squad
we need a new coach
Watching this Italy was like watching my father and his pals play football
At the very least, Gnonto played well and got one goal.
Scamacca is 10x more useless than Immobile.
why not give other keepers a chance.
I have never seen Italy give up 5 goals before.
Mancini got to go now
It’s high time for Mancini to drop donnarumma his mistakes are getting to much, we need someone to compete with on that position
Maybe our federation should hold, you know, the manager accountable for his failure to qualify for the world cup. That would be a start.
So 3 decent performances and 1 bad. I can live with that
Again we’ve been let down by the absence of a striker. As in the England game we could have been 2 goals up in the first 5 minutes and that surely would have made a difference in both games. If we cannot find someone to score surely it’s time for Balotelli. I know that we are trying to build for the next Euros and World Cup but I for one think that it’s better to blood new talent one at a time and replace players when the time is right. All these changes with these new players getting thrashed by Germany is not great for morale.
Bastoni certainly is no Chiellini and has a lot to learn, but he needs to learn fast as there will be a Euro to be preparing for and we can’t afford his clumsy moments. Having said that, he needs to be persevered with as he has several good characteristics and the cupboard is a little bare in the CB department. Hopefully Gatti will be a good option and Mancini continues to grow. Disappointed once again with Barella’s game – he needs to lift going forward or be replaced in the starting line up.
I am sure Italy don’t deserve to be at the world cup.their performance don’t give confidence.they either manage to win or draw or lost woefully just like juv.those players lack determination and commitment.
Commentors’ seem to be forgetting Mancini is testing out young/inexperienced players, partly as a means to get clubs to play them in Serie A. Let’s not go overboard with the defeat. Didn’t watch the match but from the starting lineups it seems Germany played a strong squad vs. our experimental one.
Not shocked at all. There is no single star player in this Italy. No Totti, Del Piero, Maldini, Nesta, Pirlo, Buffon, …
This generation are all average players at their best.
Meanwhile Germany still got some stars. Just comparing the squads will show this was predictable.
Still waiting for this magical striker to replace Ciro to come along.. after all it was all his fault
Calmed down calm down!!!! Its not a final, its testing and experimenting with players who have never played. Chill out
I’ve seen enough of this. The only thing Mancini should have tinkered with were the forward positions. This Fall, Italy are better off bringing back the experienced players. Mancini should try to finish 1st. Try to beat England and Hungary and hope Germany drop a couple of points.
Donnadumma is a sleep, Bastoni does not sense danger a really poor defender, at fault for at least 2 goals . Di Marco not holding the line for the 3rd goal would have been offside again basics , Barella final ball in desperate.This is the worst display i have ever seen from an italian national team . Once a real power house now a sad relative .
The only lesson from this Germany game for Mancini is to not experimenti that many players in one go against an in form team. Talk about a bit of revenge for Grosso and Del Piero in what I think was the best Match I’ve ever seen. Gnonto played well and got his first goal in a poorly organised team after they went behind.. still..could be worse ..could have been Hungary eh.
It’s quite simple really. Italy were too slow with the ball and their midfield and defense struggled to keep up with the pace and pressure that Germany placed on them. A team that knows how to counter attack with pace and speed and also press the other team properly when they don’t have the ball, will 99% of the time win. Similar to what Argentina did to Italy except they didn’t apply as much pressure off the ball. And the defense and Donnarumma continue to look horribly slow and quit clueless at times.
Wow everyone is an expert. We are frustrated, but it was an experimental team, Mancini changed over 9 players for this game, it was always going to be difficult against that German team , and over there. These are games they learn from. Not sure what more people want.
I’m a realist.
The players are these. Like Mancini said ‘I can’t invent players”.
It’s not their fault. This is the fault if thw Lega Calcio, current labor laws, Owners and Presidents that are OK with Italian players down to 33% in their own league. This is the results. This is what happens.
Hope now to beat England at the Meazza in September
Then we avoid Relegation.
Germany surely wins the Group now.
Before the match I had an inkling we were losing it but not by this score.
Blame the system in Italy, Owners (all Americans and Asians) that don’t employ Italian players.
People calling the head of Mancini are idiots. He won the Euros ffs, ok he got rolled in the WC qualifiers from 2 missed penalties and a fluke wonder strike.
Its a young side and its the conference league. Settle down
This is sooooo bad. They always were bad even before the euros. They played really awful teams to qualify. Got lucky with shoot out wins and won the tournament. I was so happy yet so blind by how bad they truly are. We got lucky at euro20. But this next generation is vey poor. N this is our future unfortunately
canada32kid, you know nothing about the sport… you realize how hard it is to win a Euro? Italy broke the record for undefeated games… go watch hockey, eh!
FORZA ITALIA, FORZA AZZURI
Well said Franco. Some common sense at last. These eere basically friendlies where anything could happen. Overall they’ve fine well and we’ve found some new using players. It’s the end of the season. Some players are bound to be tired.
it is totally unacceptable
It’s essentially the fourth different team in 4 games. A terrible defeat but context everyone. Italy has played with 4 different teams – and this one was bad and against the best team in the group.
One thing for certain is Donnaruma’s distribution is lazy and weak.
Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t these just glorified friendlies? Italy have two years to find their eleven to fifteen core players for the Euros so no need to panic. Germany still don’t know theirs with the World Cup months away and that’s been their undoing the past two tournaments. Both teams have been inconsistent and changing players, mainly due to the fact that a lot of players need a break instead of playing this worthless tournament so I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Calabria is not the right one for the right-back. He always sent the ball to Germany in a counterattack and could not stop the opponent’s winger. He should be replaced by Cambiaso, who plays fantastic football for U-21.
Could have been much worse. At this point, I am happy they managed to score 2 goals, and avoid a total destruction.
To be honest, the score kind of reflect the quality gap there is between italian football and the big players at the moment.
Without injuries, with a strong team spirit, and with a confidence boost, magic can still happen. But it is a bit too much to ask to always play in optimal conditions.
Sheva Milan,
No, these are not glorified friendlies.
When Italy loses a few places in the Rankings and potentially drops to a lower Pot for seeding for a future Euro or World Cup, as happened for World Cup, it will be seen how these matches mattered.
ROMULUS i do not watch hockey, but I will watch Canada at Qatar this year.
Ciao!
And for the record I love this team with all me heart. Since 94.
Ut right now since 2018 this year has a poor future is all im saying. I hope it gets better, ut from what i see euro 20 starting to seem like a fluke
Iv not seen Germany play that aggressive in there previous games, they were clearly fired up for this match, being the current European champions and Italy of course has made this twice as hard for Italy not to mention holding the unbeaten run of games record to top it off.
Big footballing nations are going want to beat us at all costs until we are looked at from them as a weak nation.
We won the Euros because we went in as underdogs, I mean most spectators had no idea who Chiesa & Spinazola are because of how big the EPL is and our top players are not playing in the later stages of the champions league.
I read after we had won the Euros
Chelsea and Bayern were willing to splash 100m at Chiesa,
Italy have never really done well after winning a trophy and this new group of young lads are going to need time to grow . I feel since Donnarumma won the euros hes changed for the worse.
Not sure if he’s a leader of men on the field.