Italy players celebrate after Italy s Nicolo Barella scored his side s opening goal during the UEFA Nations League third place soccer match between Italy and Belgium at the Juventus stadium, in Turin, Italy, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
TURIN, Italy — European champion Italy bounced back from its first loss in more than three years to beat Belgium 2-1 in the Nations League's third-place match on Sunday.
Nicolò Barella opened the scoring at the start of the second half and Domenico Berardi doubled Italy's lead from the spot in the 65th minute.
Belgium hit the woodwork three times before Charles De Ketelaere netted his first international goal four minutes from time.
Italy had seen its world record 37-match unbeaten run ended by Spain in Wednesday's semifinal, with Leonardo Bonucci sent off before halftime in a 2-1 loss. Belgium lost to France on Thursday, after the world champion recovered from two goals down to win 3-2.
France and Spain meet in the final in Milan later Sunday.
Both Belgium and Italy made sweeping changes from their semifinal lineups. Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard and Thomas Foket had left the Belgium squad after sustaining injuries.
Italy started aggressively but it was Belgium which went closest to taking the lead when a fierce effort by Alexis Saelemaekers crashed off the crossbar.
Italy could have broken the deadlock on the stroke of halftime but Thibaut Courtois made a fine save with his feet to push Federico Chiesa's effort round the post.
It took the Azzurri less than a minute of the second half to open the scoring when a corner was headed out but only as far as Barella, who volleyed into the bottom left corner.
It was Barella's first goal for Italy since scoring in the 2-1 win over Belgium in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals.
Belgium almost leveled on the hour mark but Michy Batshuayi's effort came off the crossbar and instead Italy doubled its lead five minutes later when it was awarded a penalty after Timothy Castagne nudged over Chiesa.
Courtois got a hand to Berardi's spotkick, but the power took it in anyway.
Yannick Carrasco hit the right post for Belgium eight minutes from time before it finally got one back.
An Italian corner was caught by Courtois, whose long throw to Kevin De Bruyne sparked a counterattack. De Bruyne found De Ketelaere and his angled shot went through the legs of Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
FALMOUTH, MA – The police in Falmouth have identified the victim in an accident involving a car plunging into the ocean on February 20, NBC10 Boston reported.
PHILADELPHIA – The Federation of Hellenic Societies of Philadelphia and Greater Delaware Valley announced that the Evzones, the Presidential Guard of Greece will be participating in the Philadelphia Greek Independence Day Parade on March 20.
To purchase a gift subscription, please log out of your account, and purchase the subscription with a new email ID.
On April 2, 2021, we celebrated The National Herald’s 106th Anniversary. Help us maintain our independent journalism and continue serving Hellenism worldwide.
In order to deliver a more personalized, responsive, and improved experience, we use cookies to remember information about how you use this site. By Continuing to access the website, you agree that we will store data in a cookie as outlined in our Privacy Policy.
We use cookies on our site to personalize your experience, bring you the most relevant content, show you the most useful ads, and to help report any issues with our site. You can update your preferences at any time by visiting preferences. By selecting Accept, you consent to our use of cookies. To learn more about how your data is used, visit our cookie policy.
You’re reading 1 of 3 free articles this month. Get unlimited access to The National Herald. or Log In
You’ve reached your limit of free articles for this month. Get unlimited access to the best in independent Greek journalism starting as low as $1/week.