Italy beat North Macedonia 5-2 in Euro C’ship

Rome: Federico Chiesa scored two first-half goals and defending champion Italy beat North Macedonia 5-2 to gain a measure of revenge and move closer to qualifying for the European Championship. Italy now needs only a draw against Ukraine on Monday to secure a spot at next year’s tournament in Germany.

North Macedonia kept Italy from qualifying for last year’s World Cup with a 1-0 playoff win over the Azzurri in Palermo.

“The important thing is that we won the game. Unfortunately, we conceded two goals that overall I don’t think we deserved to let in, but now we will fight it out directly with Ukraine,” Chiesa said on Friday. “We showed that we wanted to dominate the match and we deserved the victory.”

North Macedonia had already been eliminated from contention

before its latest visit to Italy and the Azzurri quickly took control when fullback Matteo Darmian scored 17 minutes in at the Stadio Olimpico with a header.