At the final whistle of Belgium vs Italy last night, Gianluca Vialli commented, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" - never could the 59-capped Italian international be more correct. Outgoing national team manager, Antonio Conte dished out a tactical masterclass and he reaped the plaudits of a 2-0 result that not many Italian fans predicted.
Conte opted to play three centre halves, all of which he coached during his stint at Juventus. With willing runners, Matteo Darmian and Andrea Candreva occupying the two wing back roles, they were well versed defensively and attacked when the opportunity arose. Andrea Pirlo, who was the talisman four years ago, was left out of the squad leaving Daniele De Rossi to occupy the withdrawn role while Leonardo Bonucci was also capable of play-making from the back. It was Bonucci who supplied the pin point ball Emanuele Giacherrini to open the scoring half an hour into the match.
In true Italian fashion, they made themselves a very hard nut to crack, often keeping the majority of their players behind the ball. The midfield, consisting of De Rossi, Giacherrini and Marco Parolo, dominated the Belgium's star studded outfit. Parolo and De Rossi in particular were disciplined and kept Kevin de Bruyne and Eden Hazard on a tight leash through out the match. With 56% of the possession, Conte was happy to allow Belgium to have the ball at the back, in favour of keeping their impenetrable shape. Once Belgium did get the ball into dangerous areas, the Italian midfield pressed and were able to win the ball back before calmly playing the ball out of defence.
Unlike Roy Hodgson, Antonio Conte introduced the pacey Ciro Immobile when Belgium threw caution into the wind and it gave Italy another point of attack. After a loose ball from Belgium Immobile picked the ball up on half way and ran at the defence. After working some space to shoot, the Torino attacker cracked a shot off, only to be matched by a fine save from Thibaut Courtois. In the second minute of added time, Immobile twisted and turned before finding Candreva on the right side of the box. The Lazio player controlled the ball and committed a few Belgian defenders before dinking the ball to Graziano Pelle who fired the ball into the back of the net to give Italy a comfortable victory.
While Italy were a well drilled unit, Belgium were the opposite. They looked disorganised, weak defensively and lacking ideas in the final third. Romelu Lukaku was very poor, with his performance epitomised by his off target shot in the second half after a swift Belgium counter attack. In commentary, Martin Keown summed up the Belgian performance perfectly describing it as 'playing with the handbrake on' and likening it to Manchester United of last season. One shining light was Dries Mertens who replaced Radja Nainggolan on 62 minutes. The Napoli man caused a few problems for the Italian defence with his direct running and on one instance weaved his way to the byline before squaring the ball back into a dangerous area. Not one Belgian player was on the same wave length as Mertens and the Italians cleared easily.
The other game in this group saw Sweden come from behind to draw with the Republic of Ireland. The Irish side will undoubtedly see this as an opportunity missed when Wes Hoolahan curled a half-volley from a Seamus Coleman cross into the back of the net. Sweden equalised thanks to the work of Zlatan Ibrahimovic who fired a ball into the Irish 6 yard box to be deflected into the net by Ciaran Clark. Sweden claim a vital point despite not having a shot on target in the whole game. With the Swedes up next for Italy, Conte will have to adapt his team as it will be expected that they will have more possession than they did against Belgium.
Chelsea fans will have been salivating at the passion showed by Antonio Conte, who takes the reigns in west London at the conclusion of the tournament. Italy now have an excellent chance at proving the doubters wrong and their manager will certainly have the players in the appropriate mindset for challenges ahead.
