Italy continued their dominant start to the European Championship with a 1-0 win over Wales in their final Group A game at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. Atalanta’s Matteo Pessina scored the game’s only goal after he turned in a Marco Verratti freekick in the 39th minute of the game as a largely second-string Azzurri side made light work of Wales, who finished the game with 10 men following the second half dismissal of 20-year-old Ethan Ampadu for a late challenge on Federico Bernardeschi. Italy’s manager Roberto Mancini also substituted goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma for Salvatore Sirigu in the 89th minute of the game, making Donnarumma the first goalkeeper to be substituted off in this year’s Euros.
In Group A’s other game, Turkey was swept aside by Switzerland 3-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. Striker Haris Seferovic opened the scoring with a left-footed effort from distance inside the opening 6 minutes before Xherdan Shaqiri doubled their lead 20 minutes later. Irfan Can Kahveci pulled one back for Turkey with a stunner in the 62nd minute before Shaqiri scored again just six minutes later to put the game to bed and condemn Turkey to the ignominy of losing all three of their group games at Euro 2020.
Italy finish the group stage as winners of group A with a perfect record of nine points from nine available and no goals conceded. Wales go through as the second-placed side on four points thanks to their superior goal difference ahead of Switzerland, who also finished with four points but have a goal difference of -1 compared with Wales, whose goal difference is +1. Turkey finish bottom of the group with zero points and have been eliminated. Switzerland now face an anxious wait for the rest of the groups to complete their games in order to know whether they qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.
