🇮🇹 Italy 3-1 Türkiye: These 2 Newcomers Are Here to STAY, I Saw What Calafiori Did...👀😍

Football Italia

Italy 3-1 Türkiye: Newcomers Impress, but Defensive Concerns Remain

Lorenzo Bettoni reviews Italy's 3-1 win over Türkiye, arguing that the heavily rotated side still delivered a positive performance and that newcomers such as Doumbia, Pio Esposito and Vergara offered encouragement. He also flags second-half defensive problems when Italy pressed high, leaving space behind for Türkiye to exploit. The result keeps Italy in a strong Nations League position and among the seeded teams for the Euro 2028 qualifying draw.

✅ Subscribe To The Channel for More Videos: / / footballitalia ✅ Important Links: 👉 Website: https://football-italia.net/ Italy's 3-1 victory over Turkiye secured the Azzurri's status as a seeded team for the Euro 2028 qualifying draw and moved Roberto Mancini's side one point clear of Belgium. Despite losing some fluidity with a heavily rotated line-up, Italy got the job done thanks to goals from Scamacca and Calafiori, while Issa Doumbia delivered perhaps his most convincing international performance yet. There were positives to take from youngsters like Antonio Vergara and Alessandro Romano, but also some defensive concerns as Turkiye repeatedly exploited the space behind Italy's centre-backs in the second half. Lorenzo Bettoni examines the game from the Dall'Ara. Click here for full player ratings: https://football-italia.net/player-ratings-italy-3-1-turkiye-calafiori/ ✅ Stay Connected With Us: 👉Instagram: / @gazzettafootballitalia 👉 (X)Twitter: https://x.com/footballitalia

Transcript

Ciao ragazzi, welcome back to the Football Italia channel. Italy 3 Turkey 1. Another good performance for the Azzurri. The international break ends in a high. And ends with positive news for both results, playing style, and the table as well. Because this win means Italy now have seven points. So, they're second in the group A of the Nations League. One point ahead Belgium. And uh mathematically uh at we'll finish at least third, which means Italy will be among the seeded teams in the Euro 2028 qualifying draw, which will take place in uh uh December. Let's start with examining the game. Um Mancini picked nine different starters compared to the game against France. The only uh players who retained their starting spot were Gigio Donnarumma in goal and Alessandro Bastoni um in central defense. Mancini said at the end of the game that he he expected to lose a bit of fluidity because of all these changes. And to be fair, in the first half, especially the very early stages, um Turkey had a couple of chances, mostly with shots from outside the target. Easily saved, let's say, by Donnarumma, especially after the intervention interventions he had to make against uh France uh just a few days ago. Um but again, the overall performance from the Azzurri was good, I would say. Mancini changed the team almost entirely. Um Scamacca started up front. Probably on the ball he's not as smooth as Pio Esposito, but the goal was was a good one. He got um first on the cross from Di Lorenzo, and he scored with a powerful um shot. There was also a run from Issa Doumbia, who I think have had a very very very very good game. I was impressed with Doumbia and uh uh it's worth noticing that Doumbia was the only debutant who played all the four games in this international break. He made three appearances as a substitute in the opening three games and tonight he played the full 90 minutes. So, um I I think he improved his performances as the minute passed. He was close to scoring as well in the second half. He was that box-to-box midfielder that should technically uh provide uh the goals and the assists and the threat with late runs. Uh whereas Barella and Romagna were uh tasked with building from the back. Romagna was a bit of a playmaker, a bit of a box-to-box, and then when Tonali was introduced in the second half, he was just a box-to-box playing on the left and provided the assist for Francesco Pio Esposito, who netted his seventh goal with the Azzurri. Um I also attended Mancini's post-match post-match press conference. Um it was interesting what he said about Pio Esposito. He compared him to Vieri and Luca Toni. He said he's probably more similar to Toni than to Vieri, but he's a striker who in one or two years can can be a game-changer for any team he plays with. And uh again, he was introduced in the second half and he scored the other goal, the second for Azzurri, was scored by the home boy here in Bologna, Riccardo Calafiori. I have to say that the defensive performance of Italy in the second half was slightly more um struggling and shaking because Turkey were able to exploit the spaces behind the defenders, especially when either Mancini or Bastoni or even one of of the two full backs would come and try to win the ball high with keeping a high line. One of these defenders would come up um, to press the opponents and Turkey were pretty good in exploiting these spaces and were able to create a few chances and even score a goal, which was the equalizer. Scamacca got the opener, then 1-1 scored by Turkey and then Calafiori with a header from a set piece taken by Nicolo Barella and then ultimately Francesco Pio Esposito killed off the game. The atmosphere compared to Rome was much better. Obviously, um, the game against Belgium in Rome was the first home game for Italy after they had been knocked out of the World Cup playoffs. So, um, it was the first the the first time and it was uh it was a very tough atmosphere for the Azzurri. Then the following two games against Turkey away and against France uh, away as well, increased the confidence both of the players and of the fans as well. And the atmosphere again was very much different. There was much more confidence in the players and and in the fans as well. And when Calafiori was introduced, the roar was was massive, really, because he's he's he's a guy who played one season here. He contributed to a historic qualification for the Champions League in 2023-2024. And obviously, when he scored as well, the the roar was even was even louder. Uh, he spent a slightly longer. He was the last player to leave the pitch, Calafiori, because he went under the Bologna curva to wave at the fans and he fully enjoyed the moment of scoring his first international goal in front of his ex-fans. Overall, again, it was a very positive performance. It's interesting to note the work from the wingers as well. Vergara started on the right, Maldini started on the left. Personally, I liked Vergara a bit more. He was He had a bit more courage in going with a dribble, in trying to beat his direct opponent. Maldini had a fairly good game as well, but for example, in my rating for the Football Italia website, Vergara has a slightly higher grade than Maldini because it really was much of a classic winger, much of what you expect from a classic winger. Then, he picked up probably a slight injury, a knock, and he was subbed off towards the end of the game, replaced, quite interestingly, by Davide Frattesi. And it's interesting because Frattesi played as a right winger, but you remember what we said after the first game against Turkey, when Giacomo Raspadori technically played as a right winger, but then was very much involved towards the center of the field and cut inside to create numerical advantage. On paper, Frattesi was expected to do the same and obviously didn't have enough minutes available, but seeing him there is not entirely surprising to me because uh this is something that Mancini wants to see from the right wingers, especially because uh he doesn't have at this moment such strong right wingers. He knows he has to work on them. Another thing that he said in his post-match press conference is that uh players like Romano, players like Vergara need to play 10 or 15 games of this level in order to be ready to play at this level and to be consistent on the international stage. So, I would expect Vergara to get more opportunities with Italy national team and I would expect Dumbuya as well to get more chances with the Italy national team. Again, he was probably one of those who impressed me the most alongside again Francesco Pio Esposito who I really like. Calafiori scored the second goal for Italy and it was a positive performance for him as well even though strangely I have to say that Italy struggled a bit more defensively in the second half after that Kayode had been introduced after that Calafiori had been introduced. Technically Kayode has become a starter for Italy national team now after his performances against Turkey away and France but when they were introduced Italy struggled a bit more again mostly because Turkey were were able to exploit these spaces behind the Azzurri defense but overall it was probably not as good performance as against France or as against Turkey in the first game played in Turkey last week but it was still a solid performance and one to build on for the future. Tomorrow I'll be back on the Football Italia YouTube channel with Richard Hall to review the whole international break, the winners, the losers, what we learned, what we need to improve. In the meantime we enjoy a good win for Italy, a good performance, seven points in the opening four games in this Nations League which means we'll be among the seeded teams in the 2028 European Championship qualifying draw. Thank you very much from Lorenzo Bettoni here from the Stadio Dall'Ara. Time to get to go back home, go back to Florence but again tomorrow morning we'll be back with the full review of Italy's international break. Ciao. Buonanotte.