Euro 2024: Italy survive Albania scare
Italy 2 - 1 Albania Holders Italy overcome a huge scare from group outsiders Albania. Italy recovered from the shock of conceding the fastest goal ever scored at a European Championship to beat Albania 2-1 with Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolò Barella ensuring the defending champions made a winning start. Such a narrow margin of defeat may prove useful to Albania’s hopes of scraping third place in the group of death. They will almost certainly need to win their next game though. Not an easy task. Nedim Bajrami’s emphatic finish set a new record for the fastest goal in European Championship history, lifting the roof off a stadium that had never experienced anything like the Albanian influx, which kept the atmosphere electric throughout. Within 23 seconds, Bajrami ensured that this already intense occasion would go down in history. It was inevitable Albania would start aggressively, spurred on by a noisy support that filled at least three-quarters of the venue. Italy wasn't ready.