Few are talking up Italy’s chance of retaining the European Championship they won at Wembley in 2021. They certainly do not look like the era-defining Spain who were the first team ever to win this competition twice in a row, and only keen students of European football would be familiar with a majority of their squad. Yet here was a night to show why they must not be discounted.
Euro 2024, the 17th edition of the Uefa European Championship continues today, with Spain and Italy in action.
Italy recovered from conceding the fastest goal in the competition's history to get their defence of the European Championship title off to a winning start on Saturday as they came back to beat Albania 2-1 in front of a partisan crowd. Nedim Bajrami stunned the Italians and delighted a huge Albanian support in Dortmund as he smashed in the opener after just 23 seconds, his strike pulverising the previous record for the quickest goal at the Euros of 67 seconds by Dmitri Kirichenko of Russia in 20