On Wednesday evening, Italy found a new low as a packed Wembley Stadium witnessed Argentina outfox the Azzurri in a 3-0 thrashing.
Donning the new shades designed by PUMA, Italy took the field to commemorate the ‘last dance’ of the legendary Giorgio Chiellini. Other than it being the defender’s swansong in the national colours, Roberto Mancini’s men had sufficient reasons to do better than what they had done since the turn of the year. However, the impetus did not resonate in their performance.
Having outsmarted Giovanni Di Lorenzo with a swift turn, Lionel Messi made a darting run inside the Italian box, putting him in an undefendable position. His cross just needed a slight touch from the South American forwards. Lautaro Martinez was there to poke the ball into the nets, giving Argentina a deserving lead in the 28th-minute of the match.
Ángel Di María chipped Gianluigi Donnarumma to make it 2-0 on the cusp of the halftime. Despite making a plethora of changes in the second half, Italy never did justice to their status of being the European champions. Instead, Paulo Dybala put the game to bed after scoring the third goal with almost the final kick of the match. Here are the player ratings from another sorry evening for Italy.
Italy (4-3-3): Donnarumma (7); Di Lorenzo (4.5), Bonucci (5.5), Chiellini (10), Emerson (5.5); Pessina (5), Jorginho (4.5), Barella (5.5); Bernardeschi (4), Belotti (4), Raspadori (4.5)
Substitutes: Lazzari (5.5), Scamacca (5.5), Locatelli (5.5), Spinazzola (5.5), Bastoni (N/A)
Argentina (4-3-3): Martínez (6): Molina (6.5), Romero (8), Otamendi (7), Tagliafico (6); De Paul (7), Guido Rodríguez (6.5), Messi (8.5), Lo Celso (6.5), Di María (8); Lautaro Martinez (8)
Substitutes: Palacios (5.5), Pezzella (N/A), Álvarez (N/A), Dybala (6.5), González (N/A)
