Italy beat Albania on Buffon’s 1,000th appearance
Italy secured a 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Albania to keep pace at the top of UEFA`s Group G as Gianluigi Buffon marked his 1,000th professional appearance with a clean sheet.
Daniele De Rossi`s 12th-minute penalty and Ciro Immobile`s 72nd-minute header proved decisive for Italy to remain tied with Spain at the group`s summit.
It was not all plain sailing for Buffon early on as Albania threatened, but the opener, gifted to De Rossi from the spot, gave Giampiero Ventura`s side a foundation to go on and win the game in Palermo.
Andrea Belotti and Immobile had offered a prolific partnership with six combined goals in Italy`s last two qualifiers and, after a nine-minute delay caused by flares and smokebombs in the stands, the Lazio forward nodded the clinching strike.
Despite this vital victory, Spain`s own 4-1 triumph over Israel leaves the Azzurri trailing in second place in the group with an inferior goal difference at the campaign`s halfway stage.
In contrast to the consistency provided by Buffon`s continued presence in the home goal, Albania were missing regular goalkeeper Etrit Berisha through suspension and were relying on a makeshift back-line to deal with Italy`s in-form forwards.
But the visitors made a rapid start and, with less than a minute on the clock, Sokol Cikalleshi pulled a shot agonisingly wide from Odise Roshi`s smart pass.
After Roshi then drove an effort past the left-hand post from 25 yards, Migjen Basha gave Ventura`s side a foothold in the game as he dragged Belotti to ground inside the area.
De Rossi`s pinpoint penalty fired Italy in front, but they could not kick on from there and Buffon was forced to save at his near post from Roshi.
Although a scrappy opening 40 minutes gave way to an entertaining passage of play heading into the break, Belotti blasted a finish straight at Thomas Strakosha when well placed and Roshi then curled over the top at the other end.
Immobile appealed for a second spot-kick as Arlind Ajeti blocked his close-range strike with a hand, but referee Slavko Vincic was uninterested and the officials soon directed the players off the pitch due to a number of pyrotechnics being thrown from the away end.
When the teams returned - a handful of Albania players pleading with their supporters for calm - Strakosha gathered Antonio Candreva`s drilled shot from distance and then blocked from the same man inside the six-yard box.
With Albania struggling, a second goal seemed inevitable and duly arrived as Immobile directed a header across the goalkeeper and into the bottom-right corner from Davide Zappacosta`s superb centre to put the game to bed.
Source: Agencies
