Italy bounce back from first-minute shock as Barella strike sinks Albania

Italy’s title defence is alive and well for now. Expectations around Luciano Spalletti’s new-look side have been low but this win over the tournament’s rank outsiders, achieved despite a monumental scare inside the opening minute, was ultimately conducted with a familiar air of authority. Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella stepped up when demanded with decisive interventions in a remarkable opening quarter and the remainder was a successful exercise in the kind of game management that once seemed a national pastime.

Such a narrow margin of defeat may yet prove useful to Albania’s hopes of scraping third place in the group of death. If that proves unattainable they will, at least, depart with something to remember them by. Nedim Bajrami’s emphatic finish was the fastest goal in European Championship history and lifted the roof from a stadium that has surely never hosted anything like the fervent Albanian influx that descended here.

Bajrami ensured within 23 seconds that an already heady, febrile occasion would take its place in history. It was inevitable Albania would start aggressively, roared on by a deafening support that occupied at least three quarters of this vast, dramatic venue, and Italy simply had not switched on. The left-back Federico Di Marco’s throw-in, level with the Italian ‘D’, should never have resulted in a chance for their opponents but his attempt to locate Bastoni landed well short. It was a gift for Bajrami, who was on to the loose ball like a flash and hammered past Gianluigi Donnarumma from the corner of the six-yard box

Cue pandemonium among the estimated 50,000 Albanians who had, for the entire day, made Dortmund pulsate to their beat. Cars had trailed flags around the inner ringroad throughout the afternoon, horns sounding with them, and a swathe of their following had marched to the ground three and a half hours before kick-off. The atmosphere was intense but far from menacing: a group of Italian fans, comprehensively outnumbered, responded in good humour to a lightly provocative mass snapping of spaghetti outside a city centre cafe.

Now that Albania were ahead, they needed a measure of composure alongside their wild-eyed energy. Successive corners gave brief hope of a second goal but they had already looked skittish at the back when Bastoni atoned for the earlier misunderstanding. Di Marco took a short corner to Lorenzo Pellegrini and the latter angled an enticing cross to the far post where the Internazionale defender Bastoni, under scant pressure from Taulant Seferi, thudded a simple header past Thomas Strakosha.

It had been a breathless start and Italy, their heads cleared, used their new momentum to turn the tables. Barella’s strike, laced in first-time from 18 yards and leaving Strakosha rooted, was an impeccable display of technique but a mess from Albania’s perspective. A round of penalty box pinball, far from the first, finished with a snatched clearance from Jasir Asani that was returned with ruthless interest.

Only 16 minutes had passed and, after all that excitement, Italy had Albania where they wanted them. Until a late Asani shot that flew wide they controlled the rest of the first half, Jorginho a familiar metronome at the midfield’s base. Albania could make nothing stick and were thankful to Strakosha, flipping Davide Frattesi’s dink on to a post before saving from Ricardo Scamacca, for keeping the crowd’s enthusiasm high.

Could Sylvinho’s underdogs, flat ever since the early whirlwind, escape the stranglehold and rebuild a head of steam? Kristjan Asllani, one of five Albania starters who perform in Serie A, slammed a free-kick into his clubmate Bastoni’s face but by the hour mark that was as near as they had come. Italy, generally operating with restraint but fluent when afforded space, threatened again when Federico Chiesa curled a fraction off target.

The massed assembly in red and black, given few morsels by their own players, contented themselves with whistling during Italy’s extended periods of possession. Sylvinho attempted to inject some impetus with a double change; it brought a flurry of pressure that ended when Asllani miscued an ambitious volley.

As the minutes ticked down Rey Manaj, a third Albanian replacement, evaded Italy’s clutches and clipped past Donnarumma but across goal. There would be no late twist to match the one that lit the blue and white touchpaper.