Thirty-one years after the emotions of Italia '90, at the Olympic Stadium in Rome Ciro Immobile dresses up as Totò Schillaci, Lorenzo Insigne as Roberto Baggio and the national team relives a “magic night”, treating itself to the first three points of a European Championship it wants to experience as a leading player. The Azzurri confirm they have all the credentials to go far, and the 3-0 with which they see off Turkey is a misleading result: the goal margin could have been much larger. No matter. The numbers do the talking: ninth win in a row, ninth match without conceding and 28th consecutive unbeaten match (23 wins and 5 draws), just two lengths away from the record set by Vittorio Pozzo. And it would be wrong to belittle the worth of Turkey, in recent months the executioner of reigning world champions France and of the Netherlands. There simply was no contest. And if in the first half Italy lacked only the goal, in the second half Immobile and his teammates showed that when this national team manages to add a bit of ruthlessness to the sheer volume of play it produces, there really is nothing for anyone.
The Euros are off to a flying start, but the road to Wembley is still long. Dreaming, however, is more than allowed.
The programme
Saturday 12 June
*5.30 pm – Training (closed)
