Italy failed to make it three wins out of three following their victories over Belgium and Sweden. Republic of Ireland inflicted the Azzurri’s first defeat of the tournament after Brady’s strike five minutes from time. The 1-0 win was enough to put Ireland through for the first time ever at the Euros but had no effect on Italy’s final group position as the men in blue had already secured top spot and were assured of a last-16 meeting with Spain.

As announced in the build-up, Conte made eight changes from the Sweden match with only Bonucci and Barzagli in defence and Florenzi in midfield retaining their starting berths in a 3-5-2 formation. Sirigu was between the sticks in place of Buffon and Ogbonna accompanied his two ex-Juve teammates in defence. Thiago Motta was employed to pull the strings in midfield and was flanked by Sturaro and Florenzi with Bernardeschi – playing his first game in these championships – at right wingback and De Sciglio at left wingback. Zaza and Immobile started up front after impressing as substitutes against Sweden and Belgium. Both strikers were looking for their second goal in Italy blue.

Ireland were forced to do without their star player, Jonathan Walters, who scored five goals during qualification including a decisive brace against Bosnia in the second leg of the play-offs. Martin O’Neill relied instead on Shane Long to get the goals to fire his side into the last 16. Pellè’s Southampton teammate partnered Murphy at the head of an experienced team (the oldest in the tournament with an average age of 29 years, 9 months and 17 days) whose principal weapon was its physicality.

Ireland’s rough-and-tumble approach therefore came as no surprise with the men in green pressing high from the very first whistle in an attempt to disrupt Italy’s passing game which was also hindered by the state of the pitch. After a long-range drive from Hendrick flashed just over, Sirigu had to be alert to keep out Murphy’s header on 20 minutes. The Azzurri struggled in possession and Immobile and Zaza were forced to feed on scraps whereas the Irish relied on long balls to their big front men who were well-marshalled by the Italy defence. The only real chance of a very tight first-half fell to Immobile who shot wide from the edge of the box on 42 minutes. With the roof closed, the main action at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy was in the stands where the Irish and Italian supporters created a loud but friendly atmosphere as they tried to urge their teams on.

The second half was more exciting as O’Neill’s men went in search of the win they needed to secure a place in the knockout phase and Italy tried to pick them off on the counter. On 52 minutes, Zaza hit a volley narrowly over on the turn from De Sciglio’s centre before Long drew a save from Sirigu with a stinging cross-shot. Conte introduced Darmian for Bernardeschi and then replaced Immobile with Insigne with a quarter of an hour remaining. Just a couple of minutes after coming on, the Napoli attacker went agonisingly close to opening the scoring when he went on a jinking run and thumped a low drive against the post. El Shaarawy came on for his first tournament appearance after 80 minutes, but, after Hoolahan wasted a golden opportunity, Brady got Ireland the goal they desperately needed as he out-jumped Bonucci and planted his header beyond Sirigu. Italy were through to the next round anyway but there will be no room for error against Spain on the 27th June in Saint Denis.

Italy’s schedule

Thursday, 23rd June

15:20 Training session (open to media for the first 15′)

Info For The Media

You are kindly reminded that:
§  Access to the Casa Azzurri Media Centre and to the training pitch in Grammont will be permitted from 30 minutes prior to the start of training exclusively to UEFA EURO 2016 accredited media staff. Any changes to the schedule and other logistical information for the media will be made available at figc.it, through the FIGC’s social media channels and on the UEFA MIS platform.

Source:  figc.it