Italy's swift response secures victory after record breaking Albania start

Tournament football is not about how you start, but how you finish.

And if Italy are to successfully defend their European Championship crown this summer then they won’t hold on to the memory of being ambushed by Albania inside 23 seconds.

After a day when Dortmund turned red as an estimated 50,000 Albania fans descended upon the city, those supporters were sent into rapture by Nedim Bejrami’s record breaking opener, only for Italy to quickly turn the screw.

Italian captain Gianluigi Donnarumma had spent the build-up to the game praising the decision to appoint goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon into the same support position held by the late, great Gianluca Vialli when Italy won the Euros three years ago.

But he needed Buffon to be in goal with him if he was going to have any chance of saving Albania’s rapid opener which had smoke bombs going off behind the goal.

The dozing Federico Dimarco didn’t see the lurking Bejrami when he chose to throw the ball back, and Bejrami nipped in before crashing in a shot that Donnarumma didn’t even see.

The goal smashed the previous record quickest at a Euros of 67 seconds, but the wild celebrations would only go on for 10 minutes longer as an angered Italy roared back. Sassuolo’s Bejrami is one of 10 players in the Albania squad who play in Italy, a fact which ramped up the tension between the two sides before the match.

But just as the shock looked on, Roma’s Lorenzo Pellegrini took it upon himself to change the narrative.

Albania stunned Italy with a goal inside 23 seconds
(Image: Getty Images)

After going close himself the Italian No.10 - embracing everything that shirt should be - crossed for defender Alessandro Bastoni to head home Italy’s equaliser at the back post. It was part roar, part relief for the outnumbered Italian supporters behind the goal, but even better was to follow five minutes later.

Albania’s Jasir Asani didn’t get enough on his clearance when under pressure from Dimarco, and when the ball dropped to Nicolo Barella, an injury doubt before the game, the classy Inter Milan midfielder powered in from the edge of the box. Asani was convinced that he had been fouled by Dimarco when clearing but VAR didn’t agree.

A quickfire third now looked on, and excellent centre forward play from Gianluca Scamacca played Davide Frattesi in, but his dinked effort got a vital touch from Albania’s Thomas Strakosha, the Brentford No.2 goalkeeper.

Nicolo Barella fired in from distance for the winner
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

After such a ferocious first half the second was always likely to be a little calmer, but Federico Chiesa almost scored a brilliant third for Italy with a curling effort.

The sense that that third goal would be needed began to grow as animated Italy boss Luciano Spalletti grew more and more frustrated on the touchline, and on three occasions he was thankful for the class of centre-back Bastoni as Albania attacks were thwarted.

Sub Rey Manaj then almost sent Albania fans into rapture but his 90th minute effort dropped agonisingly across the goal and wide. They couldn’t quite finish how they started, and Italy were glad for their opening night to end.

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