Nations League: England misses revenge on Italy

England served their spectator ban as punishment for riots surrounding the European Championship final at Wembley Stadium a year ago. And, like Hungary recently, applied the UEFA regulations for children visiting the stadium at their home game. 1,400 were there in Wolverhampton for a hip revenge match for the penalty shoot-out defeat.

The children only saw the paused Harry Kane in action later. Instead of the goalscorer, Roma striker Tammy Abraham acted in the center of the attack and, after a disastrous misguided pass by Gianluigi Donnarumma, started to obscure top chances. A Mason Mount shot in the ninth minute was deflected by Italy goalie Donnarumma with a brilliant effort on the crossbar. At the other end, goalie Aaron Ramsdale saved Sandro Tonali from going behind with a great save.

Otherwise, the “Squadra Azzurra”, which was newly formed after the missed World Cup – only three European Championship finalists were in the starting eleven – were programmed to have problems with the coordination. But it was the “Three Lions” who, just five months before their appearance at the World Cup in Qatar, attracted attention not only with a lot of patchwork but also with holes in the defense. Italian inefficiency and a strong Ramsdale shaped the game.

Germany disappointed in Hungary

England are already three competitive games without a win, Italy leads the group at halftime of this Nations League edition, one point ahead of Hungary, who surprised in the parallel game in Group A3 against Germany. In the fourth international match in a row, a seemingly powerless German Football Association (DFB) team was only able to draw 1-1. Zsolt Nagy (6th) took advantage of the early disorder in the partially confused German defensive, but Jonas Hofmann equalized shortly afterwards (9th).

There were also two draws in Group A4. The Netherlands missed a win after falling 2-0 against Poland in Rotterdam and had to settle for a 2-2 draw. Memphis Depay missed a penalty in added time. Without their world footballer Robert Lewandowski, Matty Cash (18th) and Piotr Zielinski (49th) put the Poles in the lead. Davy Klaassen (51st) and Denzel Dumfries (54th) ensured the draw. Favorite Belgians were held to a 1-1 draw by Wales in Cardiff. Brennan Johnson (86′) equalized the Belgian lead through Youri Tielemans (51′) for the hosts.

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