Italy gained a generous hand ball verdict which allowed them to win over Finland by 2-1 to start their 2020 European Champions qualifiers on Sunday with a perfect start.
As Sauli Väisänen stopped a shot from Andrea Belotti, he had his arms crossed on his chest but the referee was quick on pointing out the penalty spot and Jorginho from Italy’s side was able to score a winning goal of the match during the 79th minute.
Teemu Pukki also earned a penalty and converted it into a goal for Finnish team 7 minutes after Ciro Immobile made a staring goal for Italy with a header shot.
Roberto Mancini, coach of Italian team talking about his team giving away the penalty to Pukki, said, “We did struggle a little bit but that was something our own doing. We were dominating the game but then gave the ball away. We need to try and improve. Still, it is a very positive thing to dominate away from home when a team has made 5 changes from their last game. So, yes, we do have a lot of talent that we are drawing from.”
With this win, Italy now has a 6 points lead over Finland to take the 2nd spot in the Group J.
In other matches of the group, Armenia defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina to have nine points and be at 3rd place in the group.
As for bottom teams Liechtenstein and Greece, they had a 1-1 draw in their match.
Including the friendly matches, Italy has now won a total of 7 games in a row. They are only two wins shy of tying with the winning streak they had under their famed coach named Vittorio Pozzo.
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