Defending Champions, Italy earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over Albania to begin their Euro 2024 campaign on a winning note, while Spain recorded a dominant 3-0 win over Croatia on Saturday.
Albanian forward scored the fastest goal so far in the tournament with the opener after 23 seconds to stun Italy.
It was his country’s second goal in a major tournament and the competition’s fastest goal, beating Dmitri Kirichenko’s effort for Russia against Greece after 67 seconds in Euro 2024.
Italy rallied back into the game ten minutes later when Alessandro Bastoni headed in Lorenzo Pellegrini’s inviting cross.
Five minutes later, the Azzurri took a deserved lead through Nicolo Barella, who smashed in a thunderous volley to make it 2-1.
Albania goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha made a series of stunning saves to deny Italy the third goal, but Luciano Spalletti’s side did enough to grab the maximum points.
Albania will return to action against Croatia against Croatia on Wednesday, while Italy will take on Spain in a mouth-watering clash on Thursday.
The Spaniards produced a sensational performance to stun a Croatian side led by the legendary Luka Modric.
Alvaro Morata opened the scoring with a clinical finish just before the hour mark before Fabian Ruiz made it 2-0 with a fine strike three minutes later.
Dani Carvajal scored from a Lamine Yamal’s cross on the stroke of halftime to give Spain a 3-0 lead going into the break.
Barcelona’s Yamal became the youngest player in the history of the competition at the age of 16 years and 338 days.
Spain coach, Luis de la Fuente has told his players to keep their feet on the ground and get the job done in the group stage.
He said: “I am very pleased. Of course it gives us a big boost and calmness as well, but in five days we have such an important game, against Italy.
“Above all, we need to stay calm. Our target is still very far away and we have to just keep our feet on the ground.
“Part of my job is doing that. We cannot control what happens on the outside but we must control internally, inside the training camp. That’s the message we want to send out – that we need to stay wary. We have to feel proud as well as motivated, but we have to keep improving in the next game because that is how we will go far.
“The country is going to be very excited, but we are aware of that and of the euphoria, so we have to just stay calm and be professional, because staying calm is power.”
Earlier on Saturday, Switzerland defeated Hungary 3-1 in the other Group A fixture.
On Sunday, England and Serbia, Slovenia and Denmark will lock horns in Group C.
Poland will slug it out with Netherlands in the first match of Group D, while Austria will take on France to complete the cast.
Euro 2024: Albanian Striker Scores Fastest Goal In Competition’s History As Team Suffer Defeat To Italy is first published on The Whistler Newspaper