Turkey-Italy 2-3: Super Raspadori, Donnarumma duck but save the result

Raspadori and Donnarumma. They are the protagonists of the victory of the National team in Konya, a 3-2 in the saddest and most gloomy friendly that the Italian history can remember. Italy beat Turkey amid regrets for the faded world pass, but if nothing else, avoid playing too much thinking about the Estadio do Dragao, where Portugal overcame North Macedonia in the meantime. To make this match a little less useless, we needed an attitude of concentration and application. A base from which to start again. A match that could turn into the first step of the long, very long staircase that will lead to the 2026 World Cup. It arrived, with a Raspadori on the shields (double) and a Gigio suspended between his recent demons (paperissima on Under’s goal) and the flashes of the ‘ innate class, like the one that avoids the Turkish peer in the finale.

Blue turn-over

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The blue start is a horror one, it seems made on purpose to evoke very recent nightmares: a player in a red jersey scores, the Italian goalkeeper does not object properly. This time Donnarumma’s faults are much more evident than Trajkovski’s World-killing goal, because the ball passes through Gigio’s three legs. And Chiellini, who had sent Under to decentralize on the right in the belief that the first post was covered by the goalkeeper, almost does not believe in his eyes. Gigio’s first half will continue with another sign of poor serenity (postponement on Unal’s face which at times turns into an omelette-bis) and a nice diving intervention to deny Calhanoglu the goal, a moment before the interval. In the meantime, luckily for him and for the national team, the result has completely reversed. The charge is played by Cristante, who finds the 1-1 with a perfect header from Biraghi’s free-kick from the left. The exclamation point, on the other hand, has the signature of Raspadori: disastrous construction from the bottom of the goalkeeper Bayindir, Tonali is ready to send it back on the fly towards the Sassuolo striker, who disorients with a fake Demiral and strikes the goalkeeper with the second tunnel- goal of the evening.

Raspadori and Gigio

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The recovery begins with a duel between former Milan teammates: Donnarumma knows Calhanoglu well and flies to defuse a free-kick from the edge of Hakan. On the other hand, Zaccagni replies, who entered at the turn of the two times in place of a not too incisive Zaniolo. Turkey wants to get back in the running in front of Konya’s very hot fans, but for a long time it doesn’t go beyond a few balls thrown into the area, with the blue defense focused on avoiding the worst dangers. The many substitutions inevitably mark the second half, but the result expands in favor of the Azzurri in the 69th minute: Muldur sleeps and is dominated by Biraghi in the air bank, Raspadori is again faster than Demiral and throws the trio into the goal. Over? Not yet, because Turkey finds 2-3 in the 84th minute: Soyuncu’s detachment above Zaccagni, Tonali loses eye contact with Dursun who touches on the net. Donnarumma so-so, but a couple of minutes later he is amazing: he saves the result with a fantastic flight on the header of the demonic Dursun, with the ball that was about to slip under the intersection. Good for Gigio, an injection of confidence was needed to start this new journey. And for the National team now the appointment is at the Grand Final, on June 1st at Wembley, dusting off the sweet European memories in comparison with Argentina, champions of South America. Then Nations League against Germany and Hungary, to reinterpret the football of our continent. That a summer did us so much enjoyment and so much harm in the spring of Palermo.