England U21 0-1 Italy U21 – Report and Reaction

England’s Under-21 European Championship campaign got off to a disappointing start after a 1-0 loss to Italy in Tel Aviv.
Lorenzo Insigne’s second half free-kick was enough to earn victory for The Azzurri and send them top of the group after Israel and Norway’s 2-2 draw earlier in the day. The result was ultimately a fair one as England were outplayed and put under pressure throughout the majority of the game.
The Italians were playing with great confidence and managed to produce some great quality long passes from the back that were causing trouble for the England on both the wide and central areas of the pitch. Insigne was looking particularly dangerous on the left hand side and at times was creating all sorts of problems for the England defence.
England did get the first shot on target in the match after 9 minutes when Marvin Sordell crossed the ball into the box from the right hand side, but an awkward bounce meant that lone striker Connor Wickham was unable to really make the right contact with the ball and it was a simple stop for Francesco Bardi in the Italian goal. Ciro Immobile, Alessandro Florenzi and Insigne all had a variety of chances to put Italy in the lead throughout the first half but were unable to convert at the time. Insigne coming the closest after 24 minutes when he played a clever one-two with Immobile but England goalkeeper Jack Butland managed to make himself big and force the 22 year old Napoli player to place his shot over the bar.
The biggest talking point of the half came on 39 minutes, England were originally on the attack when Nathaniel Clyne had space to run on the right, his cross was a good one but Wickham was unable to take the chance and the Italians were then presented with the chance to counter, Insigne ran from his half and passed the ball to Florenzi who was in space, after his touch took the ball into the 18 yard box, Jack Robinson mistimed the tackle getting none of the ball, but the referee gave no penalty to the fury of the Italian players, dugout and fans.
Stuart Pearce’s side started more positively in the second half and on 49 minutes, they believed that they had taken a valuable lead, only to see it snatched from their grasp by a change of decision from the referee.
Jonjo Shelvey swung a corner in from the left hand side which wasn’t well defended by the Italian defence and it allowed Steven Caulker to touch the ball onto Craig Dawson who headed the ball into the top left hand corner of the net. The stadium announcer believed it to be a goal and let the fans in the stadium know of the scorer, only for the goal to be disallowed after the referee’s assistant believed Caulker had fouled Matteo Bianchetti in the build up to Dawson converting the chance.
The decision seemed to deflate England somewhat and Italy began to once again take control of the match, some dodgy defending first from Robinson gave Florenzi an opportunity to cross and give Fabio Borini the chance to open the scoring but his far post header was tipped wide by Butland. Then shortly afterwards the goalkeeper accidently kicked the ball off Borini but this time the Liverpool striker’s shot went wide of the post.
With just over 10 minutes to go, Clyne fouled Italian substitute Manolo Gabbiadini just outside of the 18 yard box but the striker tumbled over inside leaving the referee with a tricky decision to make. He awarded the free-kick once again to the dismay of all Italians watching and booked Clyne for his part in the foul. Insigne then stepped up and fired his free-kick into the top left hand corner of the goal past the diving Jack Butland who managed to get fingertips to the ball but couldn’t keep it out.
All hope appeared to be lost for England until a glimmer of hope came in the 93rd minute of the game when substitute Nathaniel Chalobah was fouled 25 yards from goal. Jordan Henderson stepped up to take the free-kick but his effort smashed off the wall, but the referee decided the kick would be retaken from a slightly closer range after he wasn’t happy with the Italian walls position. Henderson took the second kick once again which this time was on target but was well saved by Bardi. This proved to be the last act of the game as the referee blew for full time and an end to a disappointing game for Stuart Pearce and his team.
It was a thoroughly deserved win for Italy. The performances from players such as Insigne and Marco Verratti were particularly impressive and they will almost definitely be two players to look out for as the tournament goes on. I would now expect Italy to go on and win this group, but after the entertaining opening game between Norway and hosts Israel, The Azzurri will still need to do a professional job so as to ensure no slip ups like we see so often in these kind of tournaments from teams in the past.
England always seemed to be lacking that killer touch in this game that would have given them a better chance of securing a better result. The quality in the final third was not there having only managed six shots in the whole game compared to Italy who managed thirteen. They managed to play the ball well enough to each other from defence to midfield, but were struggling to give any decent support to Connor Wickham up front. Nathan Redmond who was playing in his first game for the Under-21’s tonight had a good game on the right wing while his opposite on the left Marvin Sordell was unable to be as effective. Stuart Pearce will need to quickly assess which players he felt did enough tonight to convince him that they will be good enough to get the job done in Saturdays must win game against Norway.
Quick Stats
Possession: ENG 39% ITA 61%
Attendance: 10,675
ENG Team: Butland, Clyne, Caulker, Dawson, Robinson, Henderson, Lowe,
Shelvey (McEachran), Redmond, Sordell (Chalobah), Wickham (Delfouneso)
4-5-1 Formation
ITA Team: Bardi, Donati, Bianchetti, Caldirola, Biraghi, Florenzi, Marrone (Rossi),
Verratti, Insigne, Borini (Destro), Immobile (Gabbiadini)
4-4-2 Formation
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