Albania will face Italy after Bajrami scores the fastest goal in history; watch key moments – Firstpost

Italy recovered from conceding the fastest goal in the history of the competition to start its defense of its European title with a victory before beating Albania 2-1 in front of the Partisans on Saturday.

Nedim Bajrami stunned the Italians and delighted Albania’s huge Dortmund support by scoring the opener after just 23 seconds, with his strike breaking the previous record of the fastest Euro goal in 67 seconds, scored by Russia’s Dmitry Kirichenko in 2004.

However, the Italians’ response to the loss was also quick, as Alessandro Bastoni put the Azzurri ahead in the 11th minute and a brilliant save from Nicolo Barella gave them the lead just after a quarter of an hour.

From this point on, Luciano Spalletti’s side looked much more confident, although in reality they should have won by a greater margin rather than waiting in an upset final as Albania tried to equalize.

Their performance – within the first 23 seconds of each other – was largely encouraging ahead of a tantalizing clash with fellow heavyweights Spain in nearby Gelsenkirchen next Thursday.

“I’m happy with the team’s performance today, but we shouldn’t be too happy with ourselves,” Spalletti told reporters, although just before he suggested they were feeling too “comfortable.”

“You have to be aggressive, hungry to create more and try to score the extra goal,” he told broadcaster RAI.

Regardless of what happens in their next match, Italy is already in a good position to advance to the Euro 2024 knockout stage from Group B, where Spain earlier beat Croatia 3-0 in Berlin.

Italy are somewhat of an unknown quantity at this tournament, as the reigning champions also missed the last two World Cups and failed to fully convince during qualifying.

Only five Italians in the starting line-up took part in the final of the last European Championship three years ago, and a new team with Bologna centre-back Riccardo Calafiori making just his third appearance for the team.

Bajrami is making history

However, Albania is playing in only its second major tournament, after taking part in Euro 2016.

The novelty of the experience for them helps explain why Borussia Dortmund’s home was a sea of ​​excited Albanian fans dressed in red and black, who made up the vast majority of the crowd.

They couldn’t believe it when their team, led by former Arsenal and Barcelona left-back Sylvinho, opened the scoring almost from the start.

Italian Federico Dimarco took a shot from the left defender, but loosely directed it into his own penalty area. Bastoni was caught on the back foot and Bajrami – who plays in Italy for Sassuolo – rushed to control the ball, firing past Gianluigi Donnarumma near the goalkeeper’s post.

The start was similar to Italy’s last European Championship match, when Luke Shaw put England ahead within two minutes in the 2021 Wembley final before the Azzurri came back to win on penalties.

This time they were level when Dimarco and Lorenzo Pellegrini took a short corner on the left wing, after which the latter crossed to Inter Milan center back Bastoni and headed it to the back post.

Italy regained their composure and soon took the lead in the 16th minute, following a clearance from Jasir Asani straight to another Inter player in Barella, who made the cleanest touch on the edge of the penalty area and sent goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha first-time. .

They should have increased their lead before the break, with Davide Frattesi hitting the post after Gianluca Scamacca’s beautiful pass into the box.

Strakosha then blocked Scamacca and Fedrico Chiesa curled a shot just wide of the goal.

Italy then sat back down, but Albania failed to get another shot on target and the second lowest-ranked country in the competition was unable to equalize despite their best efforts late in the match.

The closest was substitute Rey Manaj, who conceded in the 90th minute but failed to beat Donnarumma.