North Macedonia 1-1 Italy: Bardhi's late equalizer sees Azzurris held away

Game is over and the final score is North Macedonia 1-1 Italy. Here is the match report.

Match Report

Spalletti took over following the sudden resignation of Roberto Mancini last month and inherited a side which had already lost to England in their opening fixture.

Ciro Immobile broke the deadlock two minutes into the second half when he headed in a rebound after Nicolo Barella’s volley struck the crossbar.

North Macedonia – who beat Italy in the 2022 World Cup play-offs – got back on level terms with nine minutes left through a fine free-kick from captain Enis Bardhi.

The draw left Italy third in the group, but having played only three matches so far because of their Nations League campaign.

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

0' OFFSIDE! Italy’s goal disallowed

15' Missed! Dimarco fails to score in front of an open goal!

39' ClOSE! Elmas’s shot saved by Goalkeeper!

47' GOAL! North Macedonia 0-1 Italy (Immobile)

71' CLOSE! Elmas’s shot wide out

81' GOAL! North Macedonia 1-1 Italy (Bardhi)

Line-ups

North Macedonia XI: Stefan Ashkovski, Visar Musliu, Stole Dimitrievski, Gjoko Zajkov, Ezgjan Alioski, Bardhi, Elmas, Jani Atanasov, Bojan Miovski, Agon Elezi, Jovan Manev

Subs: Arijan Ademi, Ilija Nestorovski, Aleksandar Trajkovski, Damjan Siskovski, David Babunski, Isnik Alimi, Igor Aleksovski, Ljupco Doriev, Milan Ristovski, Nikola Serafimov, Bojan Dimoski, Ahmed Iljazovski

Italy XI: Immobile, Di Lorenzo, Cristante, Politano, Dimarco, Zaccagni, Barella, G. Mancini, Donnarumma, Bastoni, Tonali

Subs: Darmian, Biraghi, Romagnoli, Meret, Locatelli, Guglielmo Vicario, Frattesi, Giacomo Raspadori, Zaniolo, Mateo Retegui, Wilfried Gnonto, Giorgio Scalvini