Nunziata’s men start by hitting the post with Mosconi, but then do little: the brace from the new Emilian player is decisive. Tsakiris also scored from a free kick
Italy’s run at the U20 World Cup came to an abrupt end in the round of 16. The Italians were beaten by the United States with a 3-0 which rewarded the stronger team. In Rancagua, Nunziata’s boys came up against more solid and experienced opponents thanks to around 500 appearances in MLS spread across Mitrovic’s entire squad. Of these, Benjamin Cremaschi, an attacking midfielder who has already made his debut in the senior national team and who Parma has loaned from Inter Miami, has collected around seventy. While waiting to see him at work in Serie A, we can already recognize Leo Messi’s former teammate’s sense of goal: after the three scored against the non-irresistible New Caledonia, the American captain scored the heaviest double which makes him jump to the top of the scorers’ rankings (the one won, two years ago, by our Cesare Casadei). Cremaschi immediately punched in the first corner kick (15′), intervening in the rebound on Seghetti’s awkward save (making his debut between the posts in place of the injured Nunziante). Then he closed the score with the hat trick after the game was over, ruthless on the restart, beyond the 90th minute.
fragile
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The early deficit seemed to give Italy plenty of time to recover, but that wasn’t the case. The Italians, who had already appeared vulnerable in the group stage, immediately lost confidence and slipped to the margins of the match. Italy had shown its best at the start, when a cross shot from Mosconi ended up on the post pushed by the wind. Too bad, but still too little. There was no concrete reaction until half-time, and instead they ended up running further dangers with the outbursts from wingers Campbell and Gozo, which were difficult to contain. At the beginning of the second half Nunziata brought on Liberali, Sala and Romano, but without achieving the desired effects. Indeed, in the 79th minute from a free kick (even though there didn’t seem to be a foul) Tsakiris doubled the lead with a left-footed shot that punished Seghetti on his post, also thanks to the non-waterproof barrier. Down two, it was of little use to rush into the American area to hit another woodwork with Cama (after Beaudry’s save) and ask for a couple of penalties with Fvs, both requests rejected due to contacts deemed too slight. It was essentially already over when Cremaschi made it 3-0.