Italy opened the reign of Gennaro Gattuso with a 5-0 home victory on Estonia in the qualifying match on Friday and wasted almost an hour long before he exploded in the last phases of the second half to turn dominance into an routes.
The spotlights were on the New Italy manager Gattuso, with his side in group I after a 3-0 defeat in Norway in June who cost his work Luciano Spalletti his work.
Italy is third in his group on six points from three games, with Norway on 12 and Israel second with nine, both have played a match more. Estonia is fourth with three points after five games.
For the four -fold world cup winner Italy, the domestic pressure has been enormous to get a place at the upcoming tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, after missing the last two editions.
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Italy controlled the first half and unpacked several opportunities, but the opener turned out to be elusive because Estonia Karl Hein Briljant tipped the head of Mateo Retegui on the crossbar just before the break in the biggest chance of Italy in half of Italy.
The host maintained his dominance after the break, but Hein produced a series of reactions to frustrate the aim of Italy on a breakthrough.
Two minutes before the timepiece, relief wiped through the Gediss Stadium when Moise Kean broke the impasse for Italy and nodded home from close by after Retegui’s agile Achterhielf film was perfectly in his path.
Retegui doubled the lead in the 69th minute with a precise finish that took Hein’s vast hand within the post, before Giacomo Raspadori added a third dirk head of a Byine cross a third one minute later.
A minute of time, Regui took his second of the night with a header from close by before Alessandro Bastoni added the fifth deep time of Italy in the stop time.
Published on 06 September 2025