Chivu's bet, after the first goal scored at the Italian national: “This is just the beginning”

The full program of this stage in the preliminaries CM 2026 (Group I)

The Italians began excellent dispute on “A. Le Coq Arena”, and after only four minutes from the start -up of the Gözübüyük power station, Moise Kean unlocked the table.

Pio Esposito scored his first goal for the Italian national

Ten minutes later, however, the Fiorentina striker was injured and could not continue the match. Thus, Gattuso thrown into Francesco Pio Esposito, the young football player from whom Cristi Chivu has repeatedly said that he has very high chances of reaching the new leader both in the offensive of “Nerazzurilor”, but also in the nation of Italy.

Then followed two events that had Mateo Retegui in the foreground. First, in the 30th minute, the former peak from Atalanta, currently the Saudi attacker from Al-Qadsiah, missed a shot from 11 meters. However, he resumed eight minutes later, when he did 2-0 for Italy with a shot inside the box, after a pass received from Orsolini.

In the 74th minute, Esposito's time arrived. Located at the second match in the shirt “Squadrei Azzurra”, Inter football player passed his first success for his country at the senior level. Served by Leonardo Spinazzola in the area of ​​the lime point, the 20-year-old tip resumed from the first, with the earth, thus defeating the goalkeeper Hein.

I am very excited. It all happened so quickly, but this must be just the beginning. I am extremely self-critical and I will not sleep on an ear.

I dedicate this goal to my family, who was always with me and helped me all the time to achieve my goals.

– PIO ESPOSITO, after the first goal scored in the Italian national

The final score of the match was set in the 76th minute. Estonia scored the honor void through Rauno Sappinen, who took a huge error of Gigio Donnarumma and pushed the ball into the guest gate.

Italy is fighting for the dam place in Group I

After a nightmare start in the current preliminaries, 0-3 in Oslo with Norway, a failure that was finally fatal to Luciano Spalletti, Italy returned to the victories.

The success recorded on Saturday night in front of Estonia represents the fourth consecutive match of this qualifying campaign in which Gennaro Gattuso's students win the three points.

As a result of this result, Italy has accumulated 12 points and remained in the second position in Group I, being six lengths behind the leader Norway and three points away from Israel, occupying the 3rd place.

On the other hand, Estonia is in the 4th position, with only three points tight in the first six stages.

Group I ranking (CM 2026 preliminaries):

Estonia – Italy »Start teams:

Estonia (4-2-3-1): Hein – Peetson, Paskots, Kuusk, Saliste – Shein, Palumets – Kait, Soometts, Saarma – A. Tamm
reserves: Igonen, Perk – Kristal, Mets, Miller, Mustmaa, Sappinen, Schjonning -Larsen, Sinyavskiy, J. Tamm, Vetkal, Yakovlev
coach: Jurgen Henn

Italy (3-4-3): Donnarumma – Di Lorenzo, Bastons, Calafiori – Orsolini, Barella, Tonal, Dimarco – Raspadori, Retegui, Kean
reserves: Carsecchi, Vicario – Cambiaghi, Cambiaso, Cristante, Esposito, Frattesi, Gabbia, Locatelli, Mancini, Spinazzola, Udogie
coach: Gennaro Gattuso

Stadium: A. Le Coq Arena (Tallinn)
Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük (Holland)