Lifeless Poland punished as Italy cruise to 2-0 victory in the UEFA Nations League

Poland struggled for any rhythm as Italy played fantastic football and secured a 2-0 victory to move into first place in the UEFA Nations League group A1.

Poland started the evening in first place with seven points and Italy were second with six points. Italy missed many of their key players as the likes of Giorgio Chellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Ciro Immobile and Federico Chiesa missed out for either injury-related or Covid-19 issues.

It was Alberico Evani on the touchline for Italy as Roberto Mancini missed the game due to the virus as he continued self-isolation back in Rome.

Italy got the game underway as they looked to start from the front foot and press Poland into their half. Arkadiusz Reca’s misplaced a pass back to Jan Bednarek as Italy got their first corner of the game which luckily came to nothing in the end.

Lorenzo Insigne played a dangerous ball into Andrea Belotti as the striker looked to open the score, but he put his shot wide of the target.

The hosts continued to pile on the pressure as Federico Bernardeschi fired a shot at the Polish goal. Wojciech Szczesny was able to keep the shot out as the goalkeeper palmed it out for a corner.

Nicolo Barella played a wonderful ball into the box that found Insigne as the forward tapped the ball into the back of the net, but the linesman ruled it out as Belotti clearly obstructed Szczesny’s line of vision.

Bernardeschi chipped a ball into Belotti as the striker was brought down in the penalty area and a penalty was awarded. Jorginho slotted the ball into the bottom left corner as he completely wrongfooted Szczesny and opened the scoring for Italy.

Italy continued to find chances as they looked to double their lead. Belotti had two chances before the end of the half to get Gli Azzuri further ahead. One chance was blocked well by Kamil Glik and the other saw his shot blasted over.

Kamil Grosicki looked to make an impact after coming on at the start of the second half. The winger fired his shot towards goal only for it to be blocked by Francesco Acerbi and claimed comfortably by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Italy attacks continued to come in as Bernardeschi played Barella in, but the midfielder was unable to fire it at Szczesny as his shot sailed over the bar.

Insigne looked to grab a goal for himself as his strike in the first half was ruled offside. The winger fired one of his signature curling efforts which narrowly missed Szczesny’s goal.

A dangerous tackle from Jacek Goralski on Belotti saw himself booked with a yellow card and then was later sent off for a second bookable offence as Poland played with ten men for the last ten minutes.

Gli Azzuri doubled their lead in the 83rd minute. Insigne played an amazing inch-perfect through ball to substitute into Domenico Berardi as he slotted it past Szczesny.

What happens next

Poland slip down to third in the UEFA Nations League group as they face the Netherlands in their final group game of the campaign.

Italy look to secure their place in the League A finals as they face rock-bottom Bosnia & Herzegovina in the final group game.

Starting XI

Italy XI- Donnarumma; Emerson, Bastoni, Acerbi, Florenzi (Di Lorenzo 89′); Locatelli, Jorginho, Barella; Insigne (El Shaarawy 89′), Belotti (Okaka 79′), Bernardeschi (Berardi 64′).

Poland XI- Szczesny; Reca, Bednarek, Glik, Bereszynski; Moder (Goralski 46′), Krychowiak; Jozwiak (Grosicki 46′), Linetty (Milik 74′), Szymanski (Zielinski 46′); Lewandowski

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