Goals from Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne helped Italy crush Turkey in the Group A encounter of the European Championships here at Stadio Olimpico on Friday (local time).
Turkey's Merih Demiral also ended up registering an own goal and in the end, Italy walked away with a comfortable 3-0 victory in their opening match of the tournament.
The first half between Italy and Turkey saw no goals and at halftime, the scoreline read 0-0. Turkey's defence was up to the mark and Italy found it tough to go inside their opponents' penalty area.
In the second half, things changed around, and the floodgates sort of opened. First, in the 53rd minute, Demiral of Turkey ended up registering an own goal, giving Italy a 1-0 lead.
In the 66th minute, Immobile registered a thunderous strike and this ended up giving Italy a 2-0 lead and Turkey was looking all around for answers.
The final nail in the coffin came in the 79th minute as Insigne registered the third goal and this gave the hosts a 3-0 lead. In the end, they managed to hang on to register a comfortable victory.
In the entire match, Italy had eight shots on target while Turkey had zero shots on target.
Italy will next take on Switzerland on Wednesday, June 16 while Turkey will square off against Wales on the same day.
On Saturday, three football matches will take place -- Wales and Switzerland, Denmark and Finland, Belgium and Russia.
( With inputs from ANI )
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