An unconvincing Italy side scraped a 1-0 win against minnows Malta in Euro 2016 qualifying.
The score rightly portrays the difficulty Italy had to get past the Maltese defence.
The Maltese side battled bravely for 90 minutes guided by their Italian coach, Pietro Ghedin. Recently Ghedin stated that his side needs to convert their positive performances into points. Malta came very close to achieving a point against the Azzurri.
The first half was balanced with Italy trying to find the net but never getting close to score. Against all odds Malta had the best chance of the half thanks to a delightful curved shot by Effiong that went just pass the far post.
With the first half ending scoreless Italy upped their performance in the second half in search of an opening goal.
They managed several chances, but couldn’t find the net until the 69 minute when a Candreva cross from the right hand found Graziano Pelle, who controlled the ball with his hand before scoring.
Italy went on attack for the rest of the match with Malta defending the score until the final minutes in which Malta started playing the ball more effectively.
Today’s win means that Italy become sole leaders of Group H as Croatia couldn’t manage a win against Azerbaijan. That said, Italy will need to improve their performance greatly if they are to obtain 3 points from their next match against Bulgaria.
Will Italy’s performances improve in future qualifiers?
