The Italian media came down heavily on Antonio Conte and his players yesterday for failing to impose their superiority over the Maltese team in a hard-earned 1-0 win at the National Stadium.

The leading sports dailies all highlighted Graziano Pelle’s contribution but apart from the Southampton striker’s maiden goal for the country there was little else to shout about even though the three points meant Italy maintained a perfect record in Euro 2016 qualifying Group H.

“There’s Pelle, but Italy don’t turn up,” La Gazzetta dello Sport said in its banner headline.

“The only positives from the match were Pelle’s goal and the three points won,” Andrea Elefante said in his match report without giving credit to the home team’s efforts to keep their more-quoted opponents at bay despite playing for several minutes with 10 players.

There was very little to be excited about, added Elefante who also felt Mifsud could have been cautioned for his foul on Alessandro Florenzi on 27 minutes instead of a red card.

“We have to wait a little more to see exactly where Conte wants to take his team,” he added.

Corriere dello Sport’s main heading – ‘A poor Italy struggle to beat Malta. Pelle and that’s it’ – said it all.

Italy’s performance was far from convincing. In fact, Conte’s players were more intent on administering their 1-0 lead despite playing with a man more for 46 minutes, Corriere reported.

Tuttosport said Italy struggled badly to down Malta but found solace in the fact that it was four victories from four since Conte replaced Cesare Prandelli as Azzurri coach in summer.

Italy never got going and they had to sweat to beat Malta who could have been awarded a penalty in the second half for a Claudio Marchisio handsball, Tuttosport said.

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