Italy beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-0 on Sunday to win their final warm-up match before defending the European Championship title in Germany.
Davide Frattesi’s classy volley seven minutes before halftime was enough for Italy to claim victory in soaking conditions in Empoli.
Inter midfielder Frattesi could have scored at least once before netting from Federico Chiesa’s clipped cross as Luciano Spalletti’s experimental lineup showed encouraging flashes of attacking flair and quickfire passing.
Photo: AP
The Azzurri performed much better than in Tuesday last week’s drab goalless draw with Turkey, with Gianluca Scamacca also being twice denied by Bosnia goalkeeper Kenan Piric.
“I could have scored more so there’s still much to improve on,” he told broadcaster RAI.
“We had good chances, but we have to take advantage as in the Euros groups we’re going to have fewer of them,” he said.
Italy open the defense of their crown on Saturday against Albania in Group B, where they have also been drawn with Spain and Croatia.
Bosnia failed to qualify for Euro 2024 and were missing captain Edin Dzeko, but had the first chance, Haris Hajradinovic being denied by a superb Gianluigi Donnarumma save after he intercepted Riccardo Calafiori’s sloppy pass.
Frattesi then had three good chances to open the scoring before finally guiding in his fifth international goal.
Striker Scamacca, who was key to Atalanta BC making history by winning the UEFA Europa League, had his head in his hands in the 64th minute when his powerful volley was brilliantly tipped away by Piric.
The 25-year-old was involved in much of Italy’s best play and should have done better nine minutes later when Andrea Cambiaso supplied him with a perfect low cross which he could only direct straight at Piric from near the penalty spot.
The hosts’ profligacy in front of goal was almost punished in stoppage-time when a dozing Federico Dimarco rolled Anel Ahmedhodzic clean through on goal, but Donnarumma brilliantly closed Ahmedhodzic down to ensure Italy would travel to Germany after a deserved win.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS