Mancini sets his sights on France
Roberto Mancini immediately switched his focus to Italy's trip to France after he claimed his first win in his second stint with the Azzurri against Turkiye in the Nations League.
Alessandro Bastoni handed the visitor a ninth-minute lead before Davide Frattesi rounded off an excellent passing move to double Italy's advantage in the 22nd minute.
Michael Kayode, on his international debut, put the Azzurri out of sight, as Italy scored three goals inside the first 30 minutes of play for the first time since a World Cup qualifier against Lithuania in September 2021.
Baris Alper Yilmaz threatened a comeback early in the second half, but Francesco Pio Esposito restored Italy's three-goal advantage in the 50th minute to seal an impressive win.
The result saw Italy win an away match by a 3+ goal margin for the first time since November 2019, when it beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 3-0.
More importantly, the Azzurri claimed its first win under Mancini, 1,198 days since his last win in charge of Italy, which came in a 3-2 triumph over the Netherlands in June 2023.
However, Mancini was already thinking about Italy's next game, which takes them to the Stade de France to face Zinedine Zidane's side, who sit top of Group A1 following their late win against Belgium.
"Now we have to focus on the next match, try to recover our strength, we've got fresh legs at home and will try to have our say in Paris," Mancini said.
The victory marked a huge improvement to the one Mancini oversaw on his second debut, with Italy outclassed during its 2-0 defeat against Belgium at the Stadio Olimpico.
Mancini confirmed that Giacomo Raspadori's substitution at half-time was because of an injury, and he was unable to add whether he would be available to face France and then Turkiye at home.
"We were on a pitch where it had been raining for a whole day, and it was only natural to expect a response from Turkiye," Mancini said.
"Everyone played a great game. Raspadori went off with a problem.
"We were worried that we might have to take him off after five minutes in the second half, so we substituted him at the break.
"The team pushed up, kept the ball, moved it around well. Raspadori did what we asked; he had a good game."
