Bulgaria 0-2 Italy: Belotti, Locatelli on target, Mancini’s men continue winning run

Andrea Belotti-Italy

Italy picked up a 2-0 win over Bulgaria in the World Cup qualifiers earlier tonight.

Andrea Belotti opened the scoring on the 43rd minute with a penalty and Manuel Locatelli wrapped up the scoring for the Italians on the 82nd minute.

The win tonight takes Italy to the top of Group C and they have six points from two matches.

Italy manager Roberto Mancini fielded an exciting and talented lineup and he will be delighted that his players managed to get the job done.

There was plenty of technically gifted and attacking talent on show tonight in the form of Nicolo Barella, Federico Chiesa, Andrea Belotti and Lorenzo Insigne.

The Italian side had an impressive balance tonight with experienced players like Acerbi, Florenzi and Bonucci marshalling the defensive unit ahead of the highly-rated Gianluigi Donnarumma. 

Italy enjoyed 68% ball possession and they were completely dominant from start to finish. The likes of Verratti were in cruise control at the middle of the park and Bulgaria struggled to hold on to the ball. 

Bulgaria did well to contain the Italian attack in the first half but they were completely outfought after the first goal from Belotti. 

Bulgaria will have to improve a lot if they want to qualify for the World Cup in 2022. They have lost both matches in the qualifiers so far and they were thoroughly outplayed once again tonight.

Italy travel to Lithuania on Wednesday and they will be aiming to continue their 100% start with another win here. 

#Mancini: "Every match is a tough one, Bulgaria were quick to close us down and we had little space. We were put under pressure just once and we created several scoring opportunities"

Line-ups

Bulgaria

Plamen Iliev, Daniel Dimov, Vasil Bozhikov, Valentin Antov, Ivaylo Chochev, Georgi Kostadinov, Petar Vitanov, Momchil Cvetanov, Cicinho, Andrej Galabinov, Spas Delev.

Substitutes

Petar Zanev, Dimitar Iliev, Ilian Iliev, Ivan Karadzhov, Antonio Vutov, Kristiyan Malinov, Petko Hristov, Georgi Yomov, Daniel Naumov, Martin Raynov, Birsent Karageren, Atanas Iliev.

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Italy

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Francesco Acerbi, Leonardo Bonucci, Leonardo Spinazzola, Alessandro Florenzi, Stefano Sensi, Marco Verratti, Nicolò Barella, Andrea Belotti, Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Chiesa.

Substitutes

Salvatore Sirigu, Ciro Immobile, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Emerson, Vincenzo Grifo, Federico Bernardeschi, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Alex Meret, Gianluca Mancini, Manuel Locatelli, Matteo Pessina, Alessandro Bastoni.