Holders Italy made a winning start to the 2024 European Championship after overcoming an early set-back to claim a 2-1 victory over Albania on Saturday night.
Inter Milan duo Nicolo Barella and Davide Frattesi surpassed injury fears to start for the Azzurri, while former Chelsea striker Armando Broja and Thomas Strakosha picked out the Albanian stall.
It was a dreadful start for the holders after a minute played where a throw-in from Federico Dimarco fell straight to Albania's Nedim Bajrami who raced forward to fire in the near post for the fastest goal in the history of the tournament after 23 seconds.
However, Italy were level ten minutes later as Alessandro Bastoni charged in at the back-post and nodded in a deep floated cross by Lorenzo Pellegrini.
Barella completed the comeback before 20 minutes in the way of a sumptuous first-time volley from the inside channels after a rushed defensive clearance by Albania.
Italy pushed for a third through a clever dink by Frattesi ten minutes to halftime following a run in-behind, but Strakosha palmed onto the upright and into touch.
No substitutions were shown by either nation past the interval, as the defending champions looked to preserve all their dominance to land victory.
Frattesi remained lively through the decoy runs as well as deliveries in the tight spaces, but unfortunately struggled to rattle the back of the net.
Italy made a double substitution in the closing stages, with Pellegrini removed for Bryan Cristante and Andrea Cambiasso thrown in ahead of Federico Chiesa.
The overall play remained tense before Albania missed a golden chance to level in added time when second half substitute Rey Manaj tucked wide of the far post after bursting away.
However, Luciano Spalletti's boys contained the advantage to see out the win and remained on course to defend the title won three years ago in London.