PARIS:
Gennaro Gattuso enjoyed the beginning of his life as a coach of Italy on Friday, as his team beat Estonia 5-0 to take the 2026 World Cup campaign, while Kylian Mbappe hit France with a victory against Ukraine.
A World Cup winner as a militant midfielder in 2006, Gattuso was introduced as a coach in June to stop Italy’s transparency to a third consecutive final of the World Cup.
His term began in style as a second half by Moise Kean, Mateo Retegui-who won twice-giacomo raspadori and
Alessandro Bastoni shot Italy in three places and fans are chanting the coach’s name in Bergamo.
Italy is the third in Group I after three matches, six points behind Norway leaders who have played a more game and have a higher goal difference.
“We played well and it was all under the way boys have been held this week,” Gattuso said.
“We’ve worked hard and there was a good atmosphere around the team.
“When you play as an attack as we did tonight against a better team that exposes yourself to danger, but today we were against a side that had a little Les of us, so it was right to do so to be so attack.”
Three points separate Italy from the second Israel and the team’s play-off spot, which is the most likely route for a post in the next year in the US, Canada and Mexico with only the first place to offer an immediate qualification.
Israel prepared for Monday’s meeting with Italy with their own victory on Friday as they beat Moldova 4-0 in Chisinau.
‘Brilliant’ olise
In the Polish city of Wroclaw, Michael Olise’s early strike and MBappe’s 51st goal for Les Bleus gave the 2018 World Cup winners a 2-0 win over Ukraine as Group D started.
“It was an important race because of the limited number of games (to qualify) against a quality team. We could seal the deal in the first half because we had control and we created a lot of chances,” Deschamps said.
“We went for four or five minutes in the second half, but the main thing is that we got the result.”
Olise started and finished the opening target in 10 minutes when releasing Bradley Barcola under the left side from deep.
The Bayern man of Munich appeared the length of the stadium to reach the Ukraine box and smoothly scan Barcola’s return ball to the bottom corner.
Olise and the semi-years of OUSMANE DEMBELE substitute almost doubled the lead of visitors on each side of the break, but goalkeeper Anatoliy Tubin rejected them dramatically.
Ukraine responded by coming into inches from leveling the meeting twice within two minutes after time.
Ibrahima Konate first turned a Artem Dovbyk header from his own goal line before New Paris
Saint-Germain signing Illia Zabarnyi hit the wood with a head of effort after a set.
But Mbappe made the victory secure for France when he ran a ball from the ball from Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni before cutting his interior and home in 82 minutes.
Deschamps had praise, in particular, for 23 -year -old Olise, after throwing his third goal on nine excursions to Les Bleus.
“Michael is brilliant in what he does, his movement, his combinations, his quality,” the coach said.
After the first day, France stayed second in the team of four teams behind Iceland, which defeated Azerbaijan 5-0 in Reykjavik.
Elsewhere, Denmark and Scotland played an indefinite impasse in Copenhagen, as Group C started, with Greece covering the pool after their 5-1 win in Belarus.
Switzerland opened Group B with a 4-0 win over Kosovo, as Sweden’s group Mates and Slovenia played a 2-2 draw in Ljubljana.
Former Croatian World Cup runners played 1-0 in the Faroe Islands to stay second in the L.
The leaders of the pool, the Czech Republic, defeated the third-mounted Mavrovounian 2-0 to stay three points in front of the Croats, though with two games in hand.
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