Italy’s Under-21 side never recovered from a shocking start that saw them concede twice in the opening five minutes, then Nicolò Rovella saw red in this 2-0 friendly defeat to England.
It was a disastrous start for the Azzurrini, as within 60 seconds Roma midfielder Edoardo Bove gave away a penalty for a misjudged tackle, allowing Rhian Brewster to convert.
By the fifth minute, Brewster went through the middle following another Bove error and dinked it over the on-rushing Alessandro Plizzari.
Nicolò Cambiaghi’s header was over the bar from a very promising position, but it would’ve been 3-0 on 15 minutes if not for a Caleb Okoli goal-line clearance on Conor Gallagher.
Pietro Pellegri forced a save and Cambiaghi drilled inches wide, but Pellegri then limped off with a muscular injury.
Mattia Viti thought he’d pulled one back with a header on a corner, but it was cleared off the line by Brewster.
On the stroke of half-time, Levi Colwill also nodded a corner onto the upright with Plizzari beaten.
Nicolò Fagioli and Rovella drilled just wide and the Azzurrini increasingly pinned England back without taking their chances or largely getting shots on target, compared to Plizzari having to parry a rare Cole Palmer counter-attack.
Sebastiano Esposito’s free kick had to palmed out from the near top corner, but Monza midfielder Rovella was sent off for a second bookable offence that was more incredibly clumsy than intentionally nasty.
Italy 0-2 England
Brewster pen 2, 5 (E)
Italy: Plizzari; Okoli, Scalvini, Viti (Cittadini 46); Cambiaso (Bellanova 68), Miretti (Vignato 68), Rovella, Bove (Fagioli 46), Parisi (Udogie 46); Pellegri (Colombo 28), Cambiaghi (Esposito 46)
England: Bursik; Harwood-Bellis (Mbete 93), Cresswell, Colwill (Thomas 71); Sessegnon (Gordon 71), Skipp (Garner 71), Palmer (Elliott 71), Spence (Aarons 71); Gallagher (Ramsey 71), Gomes (Doyle 71); Brewster (Balogun 71)
Sent off: Rovella 86 (I)