Turkiye 1-4 Italy: First-half blitz gets Mancini's second stint up and running

Roberto Mancini claimed his first victory since returning to take charge of Italy as three-first half goals helped down Turkiye 4-1 in the Nations League on Monday. 

Alessandro Bastoni, Davide Frattesi and Michael Kayode had Italy cruising by the 27th minute, though Baris Alper Yilmaz threatened a comeback early in the second half. 

However, Francesco Pio Esposito's 50th-minute header proved to be decisive for Italy, who moved onto three points in Group A1 after their first two matches. 

Bastoni handed Italy the ideal start in the ninth minute. A flat corner from the left was not dealt with by Zeki Celik, with the Inter defender winning his battle against Salih Ozcan and turning the ball into the roof of the net on the slide. 

It got even better for the Azzurri soon after. A free-flowing move on the edge of the Turkiye area ended with Kayode's shot being saved by Altay Bayindir, but Frattesi was the quickest on the scene to tuck home the rebound in the 22nd minute. 

And just five minutes later, Italy had their third. Another great piece of play between Giacomo Raspadori and Francesco Pio Esposito saw the latter shift the ball on to Kayode, who made no mistake from inside the box to mark his international debut with a goal. 

Raspadori and Sebastiano Esposito then fired off target to cap a dominant opening 45 minutes for Mancini's side as the Turkiye players exited the pitch to a chorus of jeers. 

However, Turkiye gave their fans something to cheer within 76 seconds of the restart when Yilmaz turned Oguz Aydin's teasing delivery past Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was out of position after coming out to try and claim a long ball over the top.

But no sooner had they got themselves back in the game, Bayindir gifted Italy their fourth goal. His loose pass was picked off and resulted in Sandro Tonali striking an effort against the right post, with Francesco Pio Esposito on hand to nod in the rebound.

The blistering start to the second half continued when Yilmaz's shot hit the woodwork on its way in, but the goal was ruled out for an offside against Arda Guler, with Aydin then failing to trouble Donnarumma from a tight angle.

Kerem Akturkoglu then blazed over a glorious chance before Eren Elmali failed to get a touch on Ismail Yuksek's cross, with Italy able to hold on to claim a deserved triumph. 

Azzurri find their groove to rubbish Montella's pre-match prediction

Before kick-off, Turkiye boss Vincenzo Montella vowed that his team would emerge victorious against Italy, but his pre-match hopes of a morale-boosting win were all but over before half an hour had elapsed in Bursaspor. 

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, with Moise Kean, an Edgaras Utkus own goal and Raspadori on target in that game.

This was also the first time the Azzurri had scored four goals in the Nations League since a 4-1 win against Israel in October 2024, and their dominance was backed up by the metrics in what was an entertaining encounter. 

Mancini's side finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.39 from their 14 shots compared to Turkiye's 1.86 xG from one more attempt, though the hosts did win the xG battle in the second half (1.77 to 0.76). 

There was also a special moment for Francesco Pio and Sebastiano Esposito, who became the fourth pair of brothers to contest the same match with Italy, after Filippo and Simone Inzaghi (twice in 2000), Aldo and Luigi Cevenini (once in 1915), and Giuseppe and Felice Milano (three times between 1912 and 1913).