Nations League 1-1 Italy: Bastoni seals impressive result in Paris

The Azzurri made only two changes from the sidethat won 4-1 in Turkiye, bringing back Riccardo Calafiori at left-back and Moise Kean for the injured Giacomo Raspadori, but the midfield remained intact with Nicolò Barella surprisingly benched afterthe 2-0 home defeat to Belgium. Brentford right-back Michael Kayode retained his spot after an impressive debut with goal.

Milan's Mike Maignan and Adrien Rabiot also started. See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

A Désiré Doué cross was deflected off Sandro Tonali to bounce off the top of the crossbar, while Sebastiano Esposito hit a fresh-air volley in a promising position. Ousmane Dembélé was offside anyway when stinging Gianluigi Donnarumma's gloves, but the Nazionale had two big chances on 42 minutes.

First Pio Esposito knocked down the long Kayode throw-in for Frattesi's effort deflected inches wide. On the resulting corner, Kean did have the ball in the net, but he was flagged offside.

Donnarumma needed another save on the Michael Olise curler moments later, but the deadlock was broken with a bit of good fortune for France. The Rayan Cherki free kick just outside the box was flicked on for an Olise thunderbolt that took a deflection off the wall and bounced in off the underside of the crossbar.

It paid off, because when a Vergara counter-attack was blocked off, Da Cunha was distracted and robbed by a Bastoni surging forward from defence, who fired in from the edge of the area. It was the first goal conceded by Zidane's France and confirms they have not kept a clean sheet against Italy since the 0-0 in September 2007.

Vergara floated a cross to the back post for the Kean looping header, which Maignan fingertipped onto the top of the crossbar, while Donnarumma flew to palm away the Eduard Camavinga scorcher. France ended the game with 10 men, as Dayot Upamecano received one yellow card for arguing with Kean, and another for wrestling the striker to the ground.

Barella stumbled and couldn't get clean contact on the deflected Vergara pull-back from 10 yards, ballooning over. In stoppages, Donnarumma flew to deny another Camavinga strike, then Bastoni made a decisive sliding tackle on Olise with French penalty appeals rejected.

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