Nations League: Three Italy talking points after 3-1 victory over France | OneFootball

Italy looked a vastly improved side in Friday evening’s surprise 3-1 victory over France away at the Parc des Princes, having endured a difficult few games under Luciano Spalletti at the EUROs in Germany over the summer.

Here are three talking points after an encouraging start to the new Nations League campaign.

Italy much better than the summer

The obvious comparison. It looked a touch worrying after 14 seconds, but Italy grew into the game before the equaliser, and were well deserving of the lead when Mateo Retegui and Davide Frattesi combined five minutes into the second half. Giacomo Raspadori topped off what turned out to be quite an encouraging performance.

The Azzurri looked so much better in practically every aspect than they did at EURO 2024. Barring the early slip, Italy were relatively sound defensively, and there was much more clarity about the attacking moves as well.

The showing in the summer was a bitter pill to swallow, but if Spalletti can get the team playing like they did in Paris on a regular basis, things will start to look a lot brighter.

Spalletti got the midfield right, Tonali makes a difference

Sandro Tonali put in a massively encouraging display in what was his first appearance in an Italy shirt for almost exactly a year. He brought a much-needed bit of bite and aggression out of possession, and was back to his best self on the ball as well; always looking to play a forward pass, and pushing forwards to create numerical overloads on occasion. There should be no question that he starts in Italy’s strongest XI.

Tonali was sat next to Samuele Ricci, who put in a massively mature performance on what was only his second senior cap.

Frattesi was bright as well, and was well deserving of his goal. After his enforced substitution, it would not be a surprise to see him rested against Israel on Monday, but it would be nice to see Tonali and Ricci rewarded with another outing after the weekend.

Stick to the same system and play to strengths

Spalletti confirmed in the build-up to Friday’s game that he will always look to use a similar system moving forwards, confirming that a back three will be his go-to from now onwards. With Alessandro Bastoni practically a guaranteed starter, Riccardo Calafiori and Alessandro Buongiorno competing for a spot on the left, and one day, perhaps with Giorgio Scalvini on the right, Italy have a very strong defensive line emerging.

A wing-back system naturally gets the best out of Federico Dimarco, who was excellent on Friday. His Inter teammates Nicolo Barella and Davide Frattesi play the same system week-in-week-out, of course, and Atalanta’s strong cohort of Italy internationals are all used to a similar tactical set-up.

It’s stating the obvious, but having a settled system that the players are used to, and gets the best out of them, can only come to benefit the national team heading into the World Cup qualifiers. Simple though it sounds, that hadn’t exactly been the case over the summer.