Italy continued to defy the critics at Euro 2016, as a late Eder goal sealed a 1-0 win over Sweden earlier tonight.
It was largely a defensive story that was played out at the Stadium Municipal, with a combination of nerves and tactics leading to one of the more dour displays the tournament has seen thus far.
With the stakes at a high, the atmosphere among both sets of supporters was electric, yet from the outset the football could not match this environment. The Swedish had the better of possession in the early stages, but appeared too timid to force the issue in the final-third, with a severe lack of service to star man Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Meanwhile, the Azzurri appeared happy to sit back, though Graziano Pelle was all over the place in attack.
The game would not open up until late in the second-half, as an unchecked cross presented Ibrahimovic with an open net, however, the fact he was offside made the striker’s miss a little less embarrassing.
Erik Hamrén’s men were ultimately made to regret their early shyness when Inter Milan forward Eder danced through past the defenders in yellow and curled a strike into the botoom corner, although denied calls for a penalty on the stroke of fulltime only added to Sweden’s late misery.
Here are the best reactions to come from Twitter after the result:
Probs the worst regret u can have is not daring to Zlatan. #EURO2016 #ITASVE #ITA #SWE #ITASWE
— andre medrano (@NumberOneAndre) June 17, 2016
Eder did it all for Italy , beautiful run and finish . #ITASVE #EURO2016
— Hatem Halawi (@hatemhalawi) June 17, 2016
'Italy was so boring today'
Boring or not we won 💁🏻#EURO2016 #ITASVE #ITA— Erica 🌹 (@5sosmyrevival) June 17, 2016
The coolness from Eder to take that extra dribble and score the winning goal. Great finish too. #ITASVE #ita #EURO2016
— Michael Dam (@MikeUSDK) June 17, 2016
Italy doing Italy things #Catenaccio #Azzuri #Conte #ITASVE
— Brian Mannebach (@BrianManny) June 17, 2016
When Zlatan met the Incredible Buffon… #ITASVE #ITA #SWE pic.twitter.com/KPEnsLKX16
— JOE.co.uk (@JOE_co_uk) June 17, 2016
Overall average performance from #ITA for their second game. Conte MUST tell his players to avoid wasting attempts on long balls. #ITASVE
— Natalę (@Natale_Luca_2) June 17, 2016
Appalling refereeing in the #ITASVE game! 2 stonewall #SWE penalties given as #ITA free kicks. #EURO2016
— BPM (@bnlblue) June 17, 2016
https://twitter.com/Dvde_Miami/status/743820652822429697
Yawn..play 180 mins more and #SWE wont score.#ITASWE #EURO2016
— Aneesh Chanðokesson (@AneeshChandoke) June 17, 2016
Played 3 hours of football and ZERO shots on target. That's Sweden for you #ITASVE
— Girish Baliga (@Baligazette) June 17, 2016
Must admit I greatly underestimated Italy going into #EURO2016 but they've impressed me the most so far, so resilient. #ITASVE
— Ben Jefferies (@BenJefferies91) June 17, 2016
Congrats to #Italy and to the Swedish supporters at the stadium #ITASVE #ITASWE #EURO2016 pic.twitter.com/EUvNyrw410
— Gigi Salmoiraghi (@gigisalmoiraghi) June 17, 2016
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