Italy’s U21’s were defeated 2-1 by Sweden U21’s at the Ander Stadium in the European Under-21 Championship on Thursday night.
Italy took the lead on the half hour as Domenico Berardi scored from the spot and Alexander Milosevic was dismissed, however, Sweden then equalised after the break through John Guidetti and finally sealed the victory with five minutes left, Isaac Kiese Thelin scoring from the penalty spot. Stefano Sturaro was also dismissed with ten minutes remaining.
After a cagey start to the first half, the Azzurrini won a penalty just before the half hour mark as Milosevic brought down Palermo forward Andrea Belotti inside the box. Berardi stepped up and sent Patrik Carlgren the wrong way as he slotted the ball into the bottom corner, while Milosevic was given his marching orders.
Ten minutes into the second half, Sweden’s ten men got back on level terms. From a corner cross, the ball made it’s way to the back post where it was controlled expertly by Oscar Lewicki who fired across goal with Guidetti stretching to tap the ball into the net.
The Azzurrini had a great chance to regain the lead just as the game entered the final quarter of an hour. Davide Zappacosta played a lovely pass to Danilo Cataldi, who turned and struck at goal from inside the box but his effort went a whisker wide of the post.
Minutes later, Italy were reduced to ten men as Sturaro was shown a straight red for palming his opponent in the face as he was fouled himself.
Sweden then had a chance to turn the game on its head with five minutes left. Francesco Bardi brought down Mikael Ishak in the box and Kiese Thelin stepped up and rolled the ball home to put Sweden in the lead and win them the match.
