Estonia-Italy 1-3: goals from Kean, Retegui, Pio Esposito and Sappinen

Gattuso’s Italy only knows how to win, but to go straight to the World Cup (almost certainly) that’s not enough. Norway’s 5-0 success against Israel, in the last “complicated” match before the direct clash with the Azzurri on November 16th in Milan, eliminates our chances of having a better goal difference at the end of the group than Haaland and his teammates. We would need a miracle from Estonia at the home of the Norwegians on November 13th: we are beyond fantasy football… The third success of the Ringhio era is nevertheless useful to strengthen second place and arrive at Tuesday’s clash in Udine against Israel with high morale. It’s a shame about Kean’s right ankle injury, scorer of the 1-0: the Viola at the Bluenergy Stadium would have been useful. We console ourselves with Pio Esposito’s first Italian goal, the future advancing with ever more arrogance. Naturally, we are also holding onto the goals of Moise and Retegui, who will also be protagonists in September: in the very likely playoffs they will have to pave the way for us towards the World Cup. And it will be important to arrive at those two spring races both with high self-esteem and with the right head. We are Italy and with Gattuso on the bench we are proving it again. It’s a good starting point to avoid a third consecutive exclusion from the World Cup. First, however, there is Israel, which we will face without the suspended Bastoni: to be sure of finishing second our group must not lose. Then there will be time to think about the play-offs.

courage Italy

—

On the eve of the match, Gattuso was right to invite his team not to think about Norway. When we take the field in Tallinn, we already know that Haaland and co have also overwhelmed Israel (5-0). However, second place needs to be secured and to bring home the three points the coach chooses a very offensive Italy team, with two centre-forwards (Kean and Retegui) plus two front-wheel drive wingers like Orsolini and Raspadori. It is the path of courage, that of playing by attacking, as we have done since the beginning of Ringhio’s new course. In a Le Coq Arena with 12,000 spectators (and 600 Italians), the national team starts strong: Orsolini and Raspadori provide width, but are ready to centralize when Di Lorenzo and Dimarco push on the wing. The Inter player himself verticalizes for the first goal by Kean who dribbles past Kuusk and with his right foot unloads past Hein: it is his fourth goal in the three matches of the Gattuso era, the sixth in the last four matches with Italy. However, the Viola striker’s match lasted little longer because he sprained his right ankle on his own and in the quarter of an hour, after trying to recover, he was forced to switch with Pio Esposito. Bad news also in view of Tuesday’s match in Udine against Israel: today he will return to Florence for the necessary investigations. Gattuso often asks Orsolini not to forget the defensive phase and Estonia struggles to create threats because we defend with the high line and because the pressure is good. We accumulate corner kicks, but we don’t find the header or the shot to make it 2-0. Retegui has the most sensational opportunity, on a penalty kick that the former Atalanta center forward himself gets after suffering a naive foul from Kuusk, but Hein senses it and deflects it onto the post. The hosts don’t gain confidence due to the narrow escape because the Azzurri’s attitude is always the right one: they dribble well (perhaps a little slowly), they look for width, they go high to try to win the ball back and they never allow too many meters behind the defense. The 2-0 was thus only postponed: it was scored by Retegui who broke away well and made up for the mistake from eleven meters with an assist from Orsolini. At half-time we were two goals ahead, with 76% possession and 15 attempted shots (5 on target), against the Estonians’ zero. A dominance more in numbers than in the number of goals, but that’s fine too.

super pious

—

At the beginning of the second half Henn tries to give a more offensive structure to his team by inserting Larsen for Palumets and Sinyavskiy for Saliste. Italy continues to dribble, but it does so more to control than to forcefully seek the goal. Sinyavskiy, who starts pushing from the left, shoots high from the edge, but the Azzurri are still dangerous with Retegui, who finishes over the crossbar from the edge, and Raspadori, who devours the 3-0 in front of Hein. Gattuso covers himself a bit by focusing on Cambiaso (on the left) and Spinazzola (on the left) in place of the full backs Orsolini and Raspadori, but the hat trick arrives anyway, with the first goal for Italy by Pio Esposito, served by Spinazzola’s cross. Great satisfaction for the Inter fan and the embrace of all his teammates. The victory is in the safe and the national team is distracted. In particular Donnarumma, who missed a “soft” cross from Soomets and conceded the goal to Sappinen, who came on in place of Alex Tamm. Gattuso takes off his jacket in anger and replaces both the booked Barella and Retegui with Frattesi and Cristante: the objective is to control Estonia who tries with the fresh forces of Mustmaa. Objective achieved with a little more apprehension than expected.