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FULL TIME: Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland
Italy will travel to either Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina for the decider on Tuesday!
90 min +2: Charles cuts in from the right and pulls back for Price, who leans back and flays over the bar from the edge of the box. That was another half-decent chance. But it’s just not been Northern Ireland’s night.
90 min +1: The first of three extra minutes, and nothing comes of the Northern Irish corner.
90 min: Smyth makes a nuisance of himself down the right and draws a clumsy foul from Barella. A free kick that’s effectively a corner. It’s hoicked into the mixer. Reid pokes the dropping ball goalwards from six yards, but not convincingly, and the ball is deflected out for a corner. That was a huge chance, and the stadium fell very quiet for a nanosecond there!
89 min: A free kick for the visitors out on the right. Charles swings it long. McConville wins a header, and nearly knocks it down for Reid, but Locatelli is on point to block and clear. That could have made things interesting.
88 min: Kean, who has been excellent in this second half, makes way for Raspadori. He deserves the ovation he receives.
87 min: Palestra cuts back from the right for Esposito, who miscontrols and runs the ball out for a goal kick.
86 min: Northern Ireland have fought so hard. But they’re out of juice now. Nothing much happening, and for the first time in this qualifying campaign tonight, Italy and their fans seem fairly relaxed.
84 min: Italy make a double change of their own, replacing Tonali and Politano with Palestra and Pisilli.
82 min: … and all that, just as Northern Ireland were preparing to crank up some late attacking pressure and play on Italian nerves.
GOAL! Italy 2-0 Northern Ireland (Kean 80)
Northern Ireland make a double change, sending on Magennis and Reid for Donley and Spencer. They’ve not got into position when Italy roar forward again. The ball wedged by Tonali to Kean, racing down the inside-right channel. Kean dinks the ball inside, seeing off McConville, and clips a low drive off the base of the left-hand post and in!
79 min: The ball’s dinked in from the right by Esposito. Kean, ten yards out, his back to goal, meets it with an overhead kick, sending the ball inches wide left. But he’s not to be denied, because a minute later …
78 min: Italy spend a couple of minutes playing some easy-on-the-eye keepball. The clock ticks on.
76 min: … although having said that, on the touchline, Michael O’Neill is the picture of calm and reserve. By contrast, his opposite number Gennaro Gattuso is reaching Maradonaesque levels of agitation.
75 min: Northern Ireland stroke it around awhile. Italy seem happy enough to let them do it.
73 min: … Esposito flashes a header goalwards from the right-hand corner of the six-yard box. Hume flicks a defensive header off the line and over the bar! And from the next corner, Barella hoicks over from long distance. Despite it all, Northern Ireland are still in this game!
72 min: Kean nearly gets the better of Smyth down the left. Smyth is forced to toe-poke out for a corner. One on the left leads to one on the right, and from that …
70 min: Italian nerves are still jangling, though. Donnarumma clanks a simple pass out from the back straight at Donley, and is fortunate the ball clips the Oxford man on the back of the heel. A couple of feet to the left and Donley was trapping, then surely scoring. As it is, the ball deflects away from danger.
69 min: Calafiori romps down the left touchline, keeping the ball in play wonderfully, then cuts back infield for Dimarco, in space just to the left of the D. Dimarco takes a heavy touch and can’t get a shot away. He should have been working Pierce Charles at the very least.
68 min: Northern Ireland make their first change, and it’s an attacking one: Smyth comes on for Devlin.
66 min: Esposito sprays a first-time pass down the inside-right channel for Kean to barrel after. Kean enters the box and whip-cracks a low shot towards the bottom right. Pierce Charles gets down to parry, and McNair clears the loose ball. That’s Italy’s sixth attempt on target; Northern Ireland are yet to manage one.
64 min: Italy make a double change. Bastoni, who could easily have been sent off, is hooked before he actually is. Retegui takes his leave as well. On come Esposito and Gatti.
62 min: Hume fires a throw in from the right. The ball’s half cleared, and Galbraith returns a volley over the bar. But the whistle goes for a foul in the box anyway.
61 min: Italy have enjoyed 63 percent of possession since the restart. The goal had been coming, even if it wasn’t in the postal system for long. “Zola would undoubtedly have featured more for Italy if his direct competitors hadn’t been Roberto Baggio early on, and then Alessandro Del Piero,” notes Kári Tulinius. “Italy had some forwards in the 90s. How today’s Azzurri could use a forward of half that calibre.”
59 min: Bastoni is booked for a cynical tug on an in-flight Donley. Bastoni could easily have been yellow-carded for that yank on Price (51 min) so Northern Ireland have cause for complaint here. Should Italy be down to ten?
58 min: Northern Ireland were beginning to dream. And that huge miss from Retegui will have got them thinking: is this our evening? But Italy came again through Kean, then again via Politano, and what a finish that was by Tonali. Bergamo en fête!
GOAL! Italy 1-0 Northern Ireland (Tonali 56)
Italy had suddenly turned up the heat, and they’ve got their reward! Politano crosses from the right. Price, under pressure from Kean, heads weakly to the edge of the D. Tonali meets the dropping ball and pearls a low drive into the bottom right! Such a sweet strike, and Pierce Charles had no chance. The stadium erupts!
55 min: … and nothing comes of the corner. But …
54 min: That’s got Italy’s tail up, though, and here they come again. Kean opens his legs down the inside-right channel and whistles a fine low diagonal drive towards the bottom left. It’s heading in, but Pierce Charles extends fully to fingertip around the post! Two huge saves in a minute!
53 min: A huge chance for Italy, as Retegui latches onto Devin’s dismal backpass and tears clear down the middle. But, under pressure from Spencer on his shoulder, Retegui takes a heavy touch, allowing Pierce Charles to spring forward and smother at his feet!
52 min: The free kick is pumped into the Italian box, and earns a rare corner for Northern Ireland. That’s sent in my Galbraith, and Donnarumma flaps in an unconvincing fashion. But he does just enough to clear.
51 min: Politano has probably been Italy’s best player, though the bar is set low. He crosses from the right, hoping to find Kean or Retegui in the middle. McNair clears. Italy come again. Kean goes over. No penalty, though Italy claim for one. Northern Ireland counter. Bastoni brings down an in-flight Price, and this is a free kick in a central position, 30 yards out. It is all happening.
50 min: Tonali crosses from the right. Kean can’t connect. The ball’s half-cleared to Calafiori, who under instruction from an anxious crowd takes a whack from distance. The ball bobbles through to Pierce Charles.
49 min: Bastoni miskicks a simple clearance. Then Donnarumma nearly allows Donley to close him down. The home fans do not enjoy this passage of play. Nerves the top note.
48 min: Some head tennis on the edge of the Italy box. Hume brings the ball under control, sort of, juggling it a la Best before looping a volley over the bar. And well wide.
46 min: Tonali bumbles his way down the left wing and falls over in the general environs of Hume. He claims a free kick that he’s never going to get. Gennaro Gattuso throws his arms open wide in the performative fashion. A bit early for all this.
Italy get the second half started. No changes. “Great to see Gianfranco Zola on the BBC TV coverage,” writes Andrew Goudie. “One of my favourite players ever. How did he only get 35 caps for Italy?”
Half-time postbag. “I think Michael O’Neill is a terrific international manager (can’t speak to his work at clubs) and I’d love to see him at a post where he had more to work with - maybe someplace such as the Czech Republic, or Morocco, or even Uruguay once Bielsa’s time passes, as it always seems to” – Brad Wilson
“I once took a holiday let in Bergamo – absolutely lovely city, and I had a very pleasant time, thank you. Anyway: my flat was three floors up, and the landlord very carefully explained to me, at some length, how the lift worked. My Italian was of the rudimentary food-ordering variety, so the finer details passed me by. It turned out that the lift for some obscure reason only had enough juice for a certain number of trips throughout the day, and if you were unlucky enough to arrive after the ration had been expended, you had to take the stairs. My misfortune was to get in the damn thing just on the cusp of it running out of power, hence a longish period in the doldrums to the locals’ amusement. There may be some moral here for the Northern Ireland team; we shall see” – Charles Antaki
Half-time reading. Just so we know where everyone is.
HALF TIME: Italy 0-0 Northern Ireland
The hosts depart to a few whistles and a lot of concerned muttering. A third successive qualification failure still a very real possibility. Northern Ireland will be delighted, though they’ll also be aware that Estonia held Italy here at the break last autumn, and went on to lose 5-0.
45 min +1: Retegui can’t get a shot away from a tight angle on the right. Northern Ireland counter, and Donley drags a shot wide right. This is getting very scrappy, and it will surely suit the visitors more than the hosts.
45 min: A brouhaha in the middle of the park as Galbraith slides in on Mancini. It could be a booking, but isn’t. Bastoni arrives on the scene and tries to take Donley by the throat. The referee, livid, splits everyone apart and issues an animated bollocking. But no card. Everyone involved slightly fortunate.
44 min: A bit of space for Devlin, 30 yards from goal. He should feed Hume to his right, but takes a whack himself. Wrong decision. Then another wrong decision from the young Pompey man, who hoicks a cross from the right out for a goal kick. Again he had options in the middle.
42 min: Politano has looked fairly lively, to be fair. He turns on the jets and makes good down the right, winning yet another Italian corner. Dimarco whips viciously to the near post, where Bastoni flicks inches over the bar. That would have certainly worked Pierce Charles had it been on target.
40 min: Tonali shovels a pass down the inside-right channel in the hope of releasing Mancini into a pocket of space. McNair comes across to snuff out the move. The Italians are creating very little.
38 min: Italy, out of ideas for now at least, knock it long. Kean battles to make something out of very little, and from the right-hand edge of the D, lashes high and wide. It’s an effort at least. Italy haven’t had many of them.
36 min: Donnarumma clanks a simple pass out of play for a throw down the right. From the throw, McNair sends a curler into the Italian mixer. McConville competes for a header, eight yards out, but Politano clears. A suggestion of handball, but like the Italian enquiry earlier, there’s nothing in it.
34 min: … but the throw, when it’s eventually taken, leads to a corner down the right. And from that, Bastoni’s header is deflected wide by Spencer. Another corner leads to a free kick, which again releases the pressure. But Italy are starting to apply it with regularity again.
33 min: Italy are certainly getting frustrated. Price stops Barella gathering the ball for a quick throw, slapping it away from his hand. Barella had shoved Price seconds before. Some beneficial advice from the referee as both men square up. Everyone simmers down soon enough.
32 min: Tonali crosses from the left but Kean heads harmlessly wide. Pierce Charles takes his sweet time over the goal kick, much to the annoyance of the home fans. We’re at this point already, it would seem.
30 min: This corner leads to some bedlam, but Kean can’t work enough space to shoot, and eventually the ball clanks off the referee, who is obliged to stop play. A slightly lucky break for Northern Ireland there, because they were struggling to clear their lines, and it was the first time Italy had looked dangerous for a wee while.
29 min: … but there’s absolutely nothing that’s happened there. VAR check over, in short order. But Italy come again, winning another corner, this time down the right.
