Italy beat France, Haaland held by valiant Kazak block

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Italy beat France, Haaland held by valiant Kazak block

Italy have turned on the style in their UEFA Nations League opener, scoring a 3-1 comeback victory away to France.

After Bradley Barcola put the hosts ahead just 13 seconds in on Friday, Italy struck back with goals from Federico Dimarco, Davide Frattesi and Giacomo Raspadori.

The Azzurri hadn’t beaten France in Paris in 70 years.

Barcola’s first international goal came after Italy full-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo lost possession, allowing Barcola to advance on goal and ****** past the onrushing Gianluigi Donnarumma.

DiMarco’s equaliser was an extraordinary angled volley into the far corner following an exchange with Sandro Tonali, who provided the assist with a backheel flick.

Frattesi scored his sixth goal in 20 appearances — impressive production for a midfielder— by redirecting a cross from Mateo Retegui.

Then Raspadori, a substitute, sealed it by concluding a counterattack.

“It was not easy to get back on track after the Euros,” Dimarco said, referring to Italy’s loss to Switzerland in the round of 16 during the summer.

“We needed this victory to raise the morale of the team.”

Elsewhere in League A2, Kevin De Bruyne scored twice for Belgium in a 3-1 win over ******* in neutral Hungary.

De Bruyne put Belgium ahead after being set up by his Manchester City clubmate Jeremy Doku and converted a second-half penalty.

Youri Tielemans restored Belgium’s advantage following an own goal for ******* by defender Timothy Castagne.

In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s yellow-clad defenders swarmed around Norway’s Erling Haaland for the full 90 minutes of a 0-0 draw and kept the striker scoreless following consecutive hat-tricks in the Premier League.

Haaland ******* to hit the target with any of his four shots during a match in which Norway had 65 per cent of the possession and produced 19 shots to their hosts’ four.

The 24-year-old has seven goals in three Premier League matches this season and hadn’t been held scoreless for nearly a month — since for Manchester City won the Community Shield in a penalty shootout over Manchester ******* on August 10.

Haaland has been the ****** top-scorer with six goals in each of the past two editions of the Nations League. Overall, he has 31 goals in 34 matches for his country.

Norway are in League B3, in a group with Austria and Slovenia, who drew 1-1 in Ljubljana.

Elsewhere, Euro 2024 quarter-finalists Turkey were held to 0-0 at Wales and Iceland beat Montenegro 2-0 in League B4.

Romania won 3-0 at Kosovo and Cyprus beat Lithuania 1-0 in League C2.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Italy #beat #France #Haaland #held #valiant #Kazak #block

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up