After beating Czechia in their opening Elite League game, the Under-20 National Team fell to defeat in their second match as Germany ran out 3-0 winners at the Stadio Centro d'Italia-Manlio Scopigno in Rieti. Second-half finishes from Rothe, Kade and Komur decided the clash, with the final two goals coming very late on and after Mane had had a huge chance to equalise. Italy will return to action in the Elite League next month: after taking on England at home on Thursday 10 October, they’ll travel to face Portugal four days later.

“The regretful thing is the result,” said Head Coach Bernardo Corradi. “We tried to equalise in the closing stages, exposing ourselves to counter-attacks from Germany, but that’s what I asked the lads to do. We performed excellently in the first half, and let’s not forget that we only had 2005-born players on the pitch and are working towards the World Cup, which we’ll be lucky enough to be involved in and is an objective of ours. During the development process, you sometimes have to take two steps forward and then one step back. However, I repeat: the step back is the result, as I liked our attitude.”

THE MATCH. Out of the team that played against Czechia, only Palestra retained his place in the starting line-up. In attack, Anghelé was selected behind Vavassori and Misitano. Germany found the net in the 17th minute, but the referee disallowed it for a push by Weiper on Comuzzo. At the other end of the pitch, Weiss made a brilliant save to deny Vavassori, with Baum then clearing off the line. There was also a fantastic stop from Azzurrini goalkeeper Torriani, who turned behind an effort from Downs. It was an entertaining game, with Italy coming close through Anghelè. Before the half-time whistle, Torriani was again in place to foil Aseko.

At half-time, Corradi replaced Misitano with Zeroli, while Germany made six changes. One of those substitutes opened the scoring: Rothe headed home a free-kick from Diehl just four minutes after the restart. Italy, who made four substitutions in the 58th minute (Idrissi, Mane, Harder and Lipani all entered the fray), tried to push up the pitch but were struggling to create any chances. With 71 minutes on the clock, Idrissi sent Zeroli through on goal, but the offside flag went up. Idrissi then made an extraordinary intervention to stop Maza in his tracks, after which Torriani saved a Komur free-kick.

With five minutes to go, Weiss kept out a right-footed attempt by Lipani, but Italy’s biggest chance to equalise fell the way of Mane, who fired over from close range following an Azzurrini corner (88’). A few seconds later, Kade scored Germany’s second on the counter, before Komur added a third from a Kade assist. For Italy, it was a harsh result.

 

ITALY 0-3 GERMANY
GOALSCORERS: 49’ Rothe, 89’ Kade, 90+2’ Komur

ITALY (4-3-1-2): Torriani; Palestra (89’ Sardo), Comuzzo, Chiarodia, Bartesaghi (58’ Idrissi); Ciammaglichella (58’ Mane), Cichella (58’ Harder), Di Maggio; (58’ Lipani) Anghelè; Vavassori (77’ De Pieri), Misitano (46’ Zeroli). Subs: Magro, Corradi, Candelari. Head Coach: Corradi

GERMANY (4-3-3): Weiss; Diehl (77’ Collins), Baum (46’ Eitschberger), Pauli, Quarshie, Zehnter (46’ Rothe); Aseko (46’ Komur), Kemlein (46’ Klemens), Ansah (70’ Drexler); Weiper (46’ Pejcinovic, 70’ Kade), Downs (46’ Maza). Subs: Backaus, Seimen. Head Coach: Wolf 

Referee: Di Marco (Ciampino). Assistants: Yoshikawa (Roma 1), Pressato (Latina). Fourth official: Perri (Roma 1)

2024/25 ELITE LEAGUE, THE SCHEDULE

Matches played
Romania 2-3 Germany
Czechia 1-2 ITALY
Türkiye 1-1 England
Portugal 2-1 Poland

Tuesday 10 September
ITALY 0-3 Germany
England vs. Romania
Czechia vs. Türkiye 

Table (number of games played in brackets): Germany (2) 6, Portugal (1) and ITALY (2) 3, Türkiye (1), England (1) 1, Poland (1), Czechia (1) and Romania (1) 0.

ITALY’S NEXT FIXTURES
Thursday 10 October: ITALY vs. England
Monday 14 October: Portugal vs. ITALY
Friday 15 November: Poland vs. ITALY
Tuesday 19 November: ITALY vs. Romania
Thursday 20 March: Türkiye vs. ITALY