Jorginho and Belotti lead dominant Italy past Poland

Date: 15th November 2020 at 10:43pm
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Italy took over top spot of Group A1 of the Nations League thanks to a dominant 2-0 victory over Poland on Sunday with Jorginho and Domenico Berardi hitting the back of the net.

The Azzurri controlled proceedings from start to finish as Robert Lewandowski was kept under wraps for the full 90 minutes.

Jorginho netted from the penalty spot while Berardi came off the bench to net in his home stadium, with the result seeing Italy move one point up on Netherlands for top spot ahead of Wednesday’s final match against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nicolo Barella started the match by pulling off another patented back-hell pass for Federico Bernardeschi, though Wojciech Szczesny beat away the effort. Lorenzo Insigne found the back of the net after a Barella pullback but it was called back because Andrea Belotti was interfering with Szczesny in an offside position.

Robert Lewandowski connected on an elbow to Alessandro Bastoni’s chin in the middle of the park, however with no VAR used in Nations League, there was no punishment.

There was no need for video replay minutes later when Krychowiak took down Belotti in the penalty area with both arms, with the referee showing no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Jorginho stepped up and sent Szczesny the wrong way to put Italy in front.

Belotti missed the mark from an Insigne free kick to close out the half as Italy headed into the break with a slim lead despite dominating possession and controlling proceedings.

Barella and Bernardeschi linked up after the restart but the Juventus man fired wide of the mark, while Lorenzo Insigne tried a patented right-footed curling effort that was deflected out for a corner.

Berardi came on for Bernardeschi and fired a volley from outside the box that just missed the mark as Italy continued to assert their dominance against a Poland side unable to generate much in attack.

Jan Bednarek got away with a clear handball, but Jacek Goralski wasn’t as lucky as he picked up a second booking for a late challenge on Belotti in the middle of the park as Italy strengthened their grip on the match.

Italy finally got their deserved second to kill off the match in the 84th minute via Berardi. The Azzurri put together a string of 27 passes with the final one seeing Insigne pick out the Sassuolo man down the right, before cutting in and firing low into the bottom corner.

From there the final minutes played out like the rest of the contest, with Italy now certain of moving on to the next round with a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday.

 

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