Home ›› 25 Sep 2022 ›› Sport
Giacomo Raspadori fired Italy to a 1-0 win over England on Friday which kept alive their hopes of making the Nations League final four but sent the English down to League B.
Napoli striker Raspadori decided an otherwise uninspiring encounter with a superb second half strike at the San Siro to keep the European champions two points behind League A, Group 3 leaders Hungary.
Roberto Mancini’s side face Hungary in Budapest on Monday and will make the final four with a win, which would be a small boost for the Azzurri after missing out on their second straight World Cup.
They have not won a game in this season’s Nations League and are four points behind Germany, who sit third after losing to Hungary and will play a dead rubber with England at Wembley while Italy try to make the final stages.
“We put in a good performance against a strong team, we were attack-minded, created chances and controlled the match while bringing home the win. We needed this kind of victory against a top opponent,” said Raspadori to Italian broadcaster Rai.
“We want to return to being the team we were before and put Italy back where we belong.”
England have not scored a goal in open play in this season’s Nations League and Southgate was booed by a large section of the away support in Milan after the defeat.
“It’s really difficult to pinpoint why we’re not scoring, because I think we’re getting into the right areas,” Southgate told reporters. “We had the moments that we had in the past we just didn’t deliver the final piece of quality tonight. I understand the reaction at the end because that’s the results we’ve had in this competition and yeah it’s an understandable emotional reaction.”