In the city where he started his playing career, Roberto Mancini reached the milestone of 50 matches as Italy head coach and also handed a full international debut to six new Azzurri. A young Italy team held a star-studded Germany to a 1-1 draw, which seemed virtually impossible following the 3-0 defeat at the hands of Argentina on Wednesday. “We struggled at the start,” he said, “but my boys did well and looked on a level with a top Germany side. We have good players and I just get them playing, we hope that they can develop quickly. The road is long.”

Among the six debutants tonight was Wilfried Gnonto, who set up Pellegrini to score just three minutes after coming on. “He’s so quick,” Mancini said, “and can do everything. He’s a forward with a quality that we didn’t have before and he will improve a lot.” Gnonto himself was grateful: “It was emotional to make my debut. The coach gave me the chance and I think I took it well.”

Gnonto’s story is a fairytale as he was fast-tracked from the youth teams to Mancini’s training camp at the end of May. “I owe a lot to my parents, who have helped me a lot, especially in the choice to move from Inter to Zurich to get more gametime. At this age, you need to play and I took a big risk. I was at Inter, at home, but at a certain point, you need to make a tough decision.” After revealing that he didn’t manage to get a photo with Messi on Wednesday - “I stood outside the dressing room but nothing” - he described the goal: “I knew that Kehrer was already booked and that’s all I could think about when I got the ball. I decided to take him and that ball in is tough for the defender and goalkeeper. If you’re a forward, you need to make the difference and I did that today.”

On the end of the young man’s assist was forward Lorenzo Pellegrini, who scored his fourth goal for Italy and his third in the Nations League. For the captain of Roma, who last week in Tirana raised the Conference League trophy, it was a magic moment: “It went well; we knew it was going to be a difficult game, especially after all the comments that have been said in recent days. We had to find a group of men rather than just players. We have seen a team performance against an extremely strong nation like Germany. Italy need to re-start with youth, we have many young players who are willing and giving their all for the team.”

All he asked for was a goal and he nearly had it, but Gianluca Scamacca’s performance opening up the German defence showed he has what it takes to play the lone striker. His first international goal will only be a matter of time: “I missed a few chances this evening; I hope they will arrive in the next game. I am living a dream, I want to grow and get as high up as possible. Here in Italy, we have many young, quality players with talent who need time and opportunity. Mancini was brave and right to play them.”