Italy recovered from conceding the fastest goal in European Championship history to begin their title defence with a 2-1 win over Albania on Saturday, after Spain made a dream start to their campaign by beating Croatia 3-0.
In Saturday’s other match, Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer scored their first international goals as Switzerland beat Hungary 3-1 in Cologne in Group A.
Switzerland beat Hungary
Switzerland made a flying start at Euro 2024 as Kwadwo Duah and Michel Aebischer scored their first international goals in a 3-1 win against Hungary on Saturday.
Murat Yakin’s side raced into a two-goal lead by half-time in Cologne to kick off their Group A campaign in impressive fashion.
Duah opened the scoring in only his second international appearance after making his debut earlier this month.
The London-born 27-year-old, who plays for Bulgarian club Ludogorets Razgrad, holds dual citizenship with Ghana and Switzerland, who will be relieved he opted to represent them on the evidence of this dynamic display.
After providing the assist for Duah’s opener, Bologna midfielder Aebischer netted his first Switzerland goal with an eye-catching long-range strike just before the interval.
Barnabas Varga’s seventh goal in nine starts for Hungary set up a tense finale, but Breel Embolo struck in stoppage-time to seal the points.
Spain thump Croatia
Spain made a dream start to their campaign as Alvaro Morata scored in a statement 3-0 victory over Croatia in Berlin on Saturday, with Lamine Yamal becoming the youngest player in the competition’s history.
The three-time European champions have often been accused of being toothless in attack during recent major tournaments, but produced an eye-catching display at the Olympiastadion to cut apart a disappointing Croatia.
Morata broke the deadlock in the 29th minute with his seventh Euros goal, moving joint-third on the all-time list alongside Alan Shearer and Antoine Griezmann.
Fabian Ruiz added a second shortly afterwards with a wonderful individual strike.
Yamal, 16, made his mark with the assist for Dani Carvajal to effectively kill the game as a contest on the stroke of half-time, while Croatia striker Bruno Petkovic missed a late penalty.
Italy pip Albania
Italy recovered from conceding the fastest goal in the competition’s history to get their defence of to a winning start, as they came back to beat Albania 2-1 in front of a partisan crowd.
Nedim Bajrami stunned the Italians and delighted a huge Albanian support in Dortmund as he smashed in the opener after just 23 seconds, his strike pulverising the previous record for the quickest goal at the Euros of 67 seconds by Dmitri Kirichenko of Russia in 2004.
Yet Italy’s response to falling behind was quick too, as Alessandro Bastoni headed the Azzurri level on 11 minutes and Nicolo Barella’s glorious effort put them ahead just past the quarter-hour mark.
From then on Luciano Spalletti’s team looked much more assured, although they really should have won by a greater margin rather than face an anxious finale as Albania pushed for an equaliser.
(Text courtesy AFP)
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