Italy, fielding another experimental lineup, produced a lively first-half performance but were still held to a 1-1 draw at home by Ukraine in a friendly on Wednesday.
Coach Roberto Mancini made eight changes to the starting line-up from the team which lost 1-0 to Portugal in the Nations League in their last outing where he in turn had made nine changes from the previous game.
SHOCKER!
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) October 10, 2018
Bernardeschi gives Italy the lead - with a huge helping hand from Ukraine goalkeeper Pyatov
Watch now on Sky Sports Football pic.twitter.com/EkAzTvRguJ
The attacking trio of Federico Bernardeschi, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Chiesa combined well and carved out half a dozen clear-cut chances but were unable to find a way past Andriy Pyatov before halftime.
Bernardeschi finally opened the scoring in the 55th minute with a low shot which Pyatov got a hand to, only for the ball to bounce over his arm and into the net.
But Ruslan Malinovskyi levelled seven minutes later with a low shot which Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma appeared to see late. Shortly afterwards, Malinovskyi hit the crossbar with a curling free kick.
Italy 1-1 Ukraine, friendly match, a nice goal from Malinovsky to equalize the score ???? #ItalyUkraine pic.twitter.com/w11ni9bDZp
— Goals⚽️ (@goalstv77) October 10, 2018
The match was stopped in the 43rd minute for one minute's applause in memory of the 43 people who died when a motorway bridge collapsed in the city on Aug. 14.
"We deserved to score a couple of goals tonight, we have to improve on this aspect and continue on this path," said Mancini. We need to be more incisive."