Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Italy dominated against Scotland but only scraped a 1-0 win Sunday in its penultimate warmup match before the European Championship, and the Azzurri's wayward shooting will be of concern to coach Antonio Conte.
The main culprit was Emanuele Giaccherini, who missed three golden opportunities in the first half.
Graziano Pelle scored the only goal of the game shortly before the hour mark. Eder laid off a superb through ball from Daniele De Rossi and the Southampton striker curled into the right side of the net from the edge of the area.
"I am happy for the goal, but we didn't shine. We could have done better with our performance," Pelle said. "There is a lot of room for improvement. We are working intensely to prepare for the Euros, to be ready. We're not looking for excuses, we could have done better tonight."
It was one-way traffic from the start and it took Scotland until the 77th minute to muster a shot at goal. Italy had 13 in the first period alone.
The victory was Italy's first in five matches, although all of those were friendly encounters.
"We put in a lot of work, even if the pitch — which was awful — didn't help us," Conte said. "We are working hard however and I liked the lads' spirit and commitment. We know we have to work and that we have a path to follow ... I don't know if we will get the answers we're looking for but in the meantime we will look at the positives: We didn't concede a goal, they didn't have a shot on target and we won."
Italy still has one more warmup match before Euro 2016 against Finland on June 6, but it was the final game before Conte has to drop seven players and name his final 23-man squad for the tournament on Tuesday.
"I will sleep calmly but above all we will work to allow the fans to sleep calmly," Conte said.
Italy is in one of the toughest groups at Euro 2016. It opens against Belgium on June 13, before playing Sweden four days later and Ireland on June 22 in Group E.
Conte will step down after the tournament to manage Chelsea. Italian soccer federation president Carlo Tavecchio announced his successor will be announced June 7.
Scotland, which didn't qualify for the tournament, plays France in another tough friendly on Saturday.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
