Italy’s national team, the Azzurri, rallied from behind to defeat Albania 2-1 in their opening match of Euro 2024 on Saturday. Albania shocked Italy with a record-setting goal by Nedim Bajrami in the first minute, marking the fastest goal in European Championship history. However, the defending champions bounced back with goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella to clinch the victory.

The match took place at a lively Signal Iduna Park, where the boisterous Albanian fans outnumbered the Italian supporters, creating a vibrant atmosphere. Federico Chiesa acknowledged that the intense noise made it challenging for Italy’s fans to hear their coach’s instructions during the game.

In a post-match interview, Chiesa explained: “He wants to see consistency in terms of play and movement. He wants to dominate proceedings and that’s what he’s been telling us ever since he came to Coverciano last September. That’s what we tried to show on the pitch. He gave us this advice, but hearing him on the other side of the pitch was quite hard. There was a wonderful atmosphere, it was fabulous. Even if the Italians were outnumbered it was a magnificent experience.”

Italy has started their title defense strongly but now faces critical matches against Spain and Croatia in Group B. Spain, coming off an impressive 3-0 win over Croatia, will be Italy’s next opponent. The highly anticipated match will take place at the Veltins-Arena on Thursday.

Federico Chiesa

This season he played in total 33 times for 2207 minutes for Serie A.

Federico Chiesa scored 9 goals for Juventus. He procured two assists. He received 1 yellow card and no red cards.

His team is currently 4th in Serie A. In the last match Juventus won 2-0 against Monza.

Juventus performance and stats

Juventus is currently 4th in the Serie A with 67 points.

In the last 38 games, it has won 19 times, drawn 14 times, and lost 5 times. In its last match, Juventus won 2-0 against Monza.​​

It has a positive goal difference after scoring 49 goals and conceding 28.​