Two wins in two matches. Italy, led by Luciano Spalletti, prepared in the final days for the 2024 European Championship in Germany by playing friendly matches in the United States against Venezuela and Ecuador. Even though they were friendly matches and against non-top-class opponents, they were still important tests that should be viewed with cautious optimism towards a possible good run for our national team in the upcoming European Championships.
Below are the highlights and statistics from these two friendly matches with Italy.
Venezuela-Italy 1-2
In this match, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved a penalty kick from Venezuelan Salomon Rondon in the third minute of the match. Before the Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper, the last Italian goalkeeper to save a penalty kick in the regulation minutes of the match was Gianluigi Buffon and Mario Mandzukic in the seventh minute in the Croatia-Italy 1-1 match on June 12, 2015, which is a valid match. For the 2016 European Championship qualifiers, since the penalty kick was saved 180 seconds after the start of the dispute, Donnarumma’s penalty became the second fastest penalty kick saved by our national team’s goalkeeper. The record belongs to Carlo Cerisoli, who saved a penalty kick from Eric Brook in the first minute of England’s 3-2 friendly win on 14 November 1934.
The victory was boosted by two goals scored by Genoa striker Matteo Retegui. Before Retegui, the last footballer to play for the peninsula’s oldest team and score a brace for Italy was Virgilio Leverato in the Italy-Spain 7-1 match on 4 June 1928, on the occasion of the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Football Tournament. This was a friendly match played in Fort Lauderdale. in the United States. Prior to this match, the last match the Italian national team played in the United States was the friendly match between Ecuador and Italy 1-1 on June 11, 2005 in East Ruthford. The first match was between Italy and Venezuela, and thus the national team became the 84th that the Azzurri faced and the eighth in South America after Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador.
Ecuador – Italy 0-2
In this match the starting goalkeeper was Guglielmo Vicario, with Donnarumma on the bench. A goalkeeper other than the former Milan goalkeeper has not started in the Italy match for 494 days. From the friendly match between Albania and Italy 1-3 on November 16, 2022, when Alex Meret guarded the Italian goal from start to finish. Scoring the second goal of the match, Inter player Nicolo Barella scored his ninth goal for the national team, reaching 19th place among the Italian top scorers of all time with 6 representatives of our football: Gino Rossetti, Egisto Pandolfini, Roberto Boninsinha, Antonio Cabrini. Francesco Totti and Graziano Pele. Among the Italian players who have played at least one Serie A match wearing an Inter shirt, Barella ranks 12th with the duo of Pandolfini and Boninsinha. In front of the three are Giuseppe Meazza, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Altobelli, Christian Vieri, Alessandro Mazzola, Giovanni Ferrari, Mario Balotelli, Andrea Pirlo, Luigi Civenini, Virgilio Leverato and Antonio Cassano.
Goals of the two friendly matches for Italy
Venezuela – Italy 1-2 at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, United States, on Thursday, March 21, 2024, led by American Rubel Vasquez. Referee: 43′ Darwin Machis; 40′ Mathieu Retegui and 80′ Mathieu Retegui. Ecuador – Italy 0-2 at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, United States, on Sunday, March 24, 2024. American John Freeman officiated: 3′ Lorenzo Pellegrini and 90 + 4′ Nicolo Barella.
“Entrepreneur. Social media ninja. Music nerd. Award-winning introvert. Beer trailblazer.”
