There couldn’t have been a better way to get back to football. Carmine Nunziata’s Under-18 team beat Austria 3-1 today. This friendly at Stadio Colaussi in Gradisca (Friuli Venezia-Giulia) was the first game after about a year and a half of inactivity due to the pandemic.

There were many new faces in the squad, to whom Nunziata wanted to give game time. After a slightly bland first half, Nunziata decided to change all eleven players, giving the opportunity to those who had not yet played to put themselves to the test.

This rotation led to immediate results when, in the 48th minute, Empoli midfielder Tommaso Baldanzi broke the deadlock, only to then, a few minutes later (59’), grab his second. Austria’s Barlov responded with his finish in the 86th minute, potentially leading to a stressful end, but Inter’s Franco Ezequiel Carboni made it 3-1 in added time (91’).

Carmine Nunziata didn’t hide his joy: "It was nice to get going again, especially with an international match. I deliberately put out two different teams during the first and second half to gauge the skills of all the players and because I wanted to give them the feel of playing again. As always there’ll be work to do – but I saw some excellent potential.”