Friendlies: Italy see off Greece with their kids, Esposito delivers again
Italy just keep rolling. On Sunday night in Crete, an Italy side stripped down to the bare bones and packed with U21s beat Greece 1-0 in a friendly that was hardly a classic, but did the job: three points and a second straight clean sheet. Four days after beating Luxembourg by the same scoreline, Silvio Baldini’s caretaker team backed up the result and once again it was the same man leading the charge: Francesco Pio Esposito. The Inter Milan striker turned in Jeff Ekhator’s cross on his debut to score his second goal in two games after just 18 minutes.
It was never much of a spectacle. The Greeks were unhappy to see Italy arrive in Crete with almost nothing but U21 players on the teamsheet, and they spent most of the night looking blunt and failing to hit the target once. Luca Reggiani’s red card in the 68th minute changed the tone and gave the hosts some hope, with Christos Zafeiris striking Gianluigi Donnarumma’s post seven minutes from time. Not enough to force an equaliser.
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Baldini goes unbeaten as Italy’s rebuild begins
Two games, two wins, two clean sheets. Silvio Baldini wraps up his caretaker stint with a perfect record before returning to the U21s once his successor is named. Italy’s new boss will be chosen after the election of the country’s new federation president, due on June 22. Antonio Conte remains the clear favourite to take over a national team in the middle of a reset after three straight World Cup misses.
These two warm-up wins at least showed Italy’s young talent has something to work with. That point was driven home later the same Sunday when Italy’s U17s won their European title, beating Belgium on penalties. Greece, 48th in the FIFA rankings, were a stronger test than Luxembourg, and the Italians got through it in controlled fashion, nothing flashy but enough to hint at a revival.
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