France’s left-back Lucas Digne and midfielder Adrien Rabiot were too much for Italy in the Nations League.
France took a sweet revenge on Italy in Group A of the League of Nations and won Luciano Spalletti you protected with goals 3–1 at San Siro. The two-goal victory guaranteed France the victory in the second division of the A-League.
Midfielder Adrien Rabiot gave France the lead with a header from a corner kick already in the second minute of the game.
France increased its away lead to 2–0, when the left wing-back, having prepared the guests’ opening goal with his corner kick Lucas Digne the free kick hit the top bar and the ball bounced off the Italian keeper Guglielmo Vicario through to their own in the 33rd minute.
Andrea Cambiaso finished Federico Dimarcon for a pass to Italy in the 35th minute of a 1-2 draw.
France completed the 3-1 final score from a lateral free kick in the 65th minute of the match, when it was again the familiar power duo Digne – Rabiot. The latter once again rose to the top in front of the Italian goal and scored a magnificent goal that sealed the group victory.
Ireland melted in England’s claws – “Crazy eight minutes”
With a 5-0 win over Ireland, England came first in the Huhkajie group and sealed their promotion to the A-League at Wembley.
The coach of Ireland, who won Finland twice in the Nations League Heimir Hallgrimsson threatened to melt down his team in the second half.
By Liam Scales a red card in the 51st minute set off a dismal eight-minute spell for Ireland.
– The first, goalless half went according to plan, but when you end up losing the game 0-5, it’s hard to say anything anymore. We saw six to eight minutes of melting madness like that, updated Hallgrímsson and pointed to the red card, penalty and England’s three lightning goals in the 51-58 minutes.
Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick in Norway’s 5–0 home victory over Kazakhstan and promotion to the A league as group winner.
Haaland has played 39 international matches and scored 38 complete hits in them. City’s goalscoring streak is tied for the goalscoring record in the initial group stage of the Nations League with seven hits.
Austria played a 1-1 home draw against Slovenia in the final game and finished second in the group, two points behind Norway.
Nations League matches and goals (teletext) here and tables here