PARIS: Italy kept up their perfect start to the UEFA Nations League on Monday, while France got the better of Belgium and Erling Haaland struck a late winner for Norway against Austria.

The Italians built on an impressive win away in France at the weekend as they beat Israel 2-1 in a game played on neutral territory in Budapest due to the security situation in the Middle East.

Goals in each half from Davide Frattesi and Moise Kean were enough for Italy to win in a subdued atmosphere at the Bozsik Arena, home of Honved.

Luciano Spalletti’s team have reacted well to their disastrous European Championship title defence, which ended at the last-16 stage, and deserved their second win in a matter of days.

Frattesi followed his goal in the 3-1 win in France by chesting home Federico Dimarco’s pinpoint cross in the 38th minute to open the scoring.

Fiorentina striker Kean made it 2-0 just after the hour mark with his first Italy goal in almost exactly three years, before Mohamed Abu Fani pulled one back at the end for Israel.

Italy are top of Nations League Group A2 with the maximum six points, while France and Belgium are level on three points apiece.

France beat Belgium 2-0 in Lyon, with Randal Kolo Muani and Ousmane Dembele getting the goals as the home side won despite captain Kylian Mbappe being left out of the starting line-up.

The outcome was a source of some relief for coach Didier Deschamps after his side performed poorly against Italy.

“Obviously I am really happy with our reaction, and what we were able to do against a very good Belgium side who posed us problems in the first 20 minutes, maybe because we were a bit restless given the context,” said the coach, whose name was jeered by some parts of the crowd when the teams were announced.

“We were a little nervous at the start of the match, then we did a lot of good things collectively, individually too, with new players who didn’t have the experience. But our performance on Friday was not the worst and I am not going to say everything is now wonderful, that everything has been fixed.”

ANGRY DE BRUYNE

The game was a repeat of the Euro 2024 last-16 tie which France won 1-0 in Duesseldorf thanks to a late own goal.

This time, Les Bleus went ahead just before the half-hour mark, Kolo Muani applying the finish after Dembele’s mishit shot was pushed out by Belgian goalkeeper Koen Casteels.

A Belgian side captained by Kevin De Bruyne could not find an equaliser and France scored again on 57 minutes thanks to a fine individual effort by Dembele.

The Paris St Germain winger skipped inside from the right wing before blasting a shot into the net on his left foot with De Bruyne launching an angry tirade against his team-mates after his side were beaten.

“I can’t say here what went wrong. I already did that to the team at halftime,” he told Belgian VTM television, “I cannot repeat that in the media but it has to be better in every way. If the standard we want to reach is the best, but were no longer good enough to get to that level, then you have to give everything. If you don’t even do that, it’s over.”

“I can accept that were not as good as in 2018,” the 33-year-old De Bruyne said of the side that reached the World Cup semi-finals in Russia. “I was the first to see that, but other things are unacceptable. I’m not going to say what.”

In Group B3, Norway beat Austria 2-1 in Oslo as Manchester City star Haaland fired in the winner 10 minutes from time.

Felix Myhre gave Norway an early lead only for Marcel Sabit­zer of Borussia Dortmund to equa­lise for Austria before the break.

However, Haaland — who drew a blank in Norway’s 0-0 draw in Kazakhstan on Friday — showed trademark strength inside the box to hold off his marker and fire in the winner, with the goal given after a long VAR check for a possible offside.

ODEGAARD INJURED

But the victory was tarnished with Martin Odegaard suffering from what appeared to be a serious ankle injury.

The Arsenal skipper left the pitch after receiving treatment for several minutes in the second half following a collision with Austria’s Christoph Baumg­artner, and Norway boss Stale Solbakken said it looked bad.

“Martin Odegaard’s injury looked bad in the dressing room as well I saw he was sitting with the physiotherapists around him but he had no chance to continue and we know it was an ankle sprain,” the coach said to Norwegian TV 2.

In the same group, RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko bagged a hat-trick as Slovenia beat Kazakhstan 3-0 in Ljubljana.

In Group B4, Wales followed their goalless draw against Turkey by beating Montenegro 2-1 away for their first win under new coach Craig Bellamy.

They got off to a terrific start, with Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson both scoring inside the first three minutes. Driton Camaj then pulled one back for the hosts.

Turkey beat Iceland 3-1 in Izmir, a game in which Kerem Akturkoglu of Benfica hit a hat-trick.

There were also wins on Mon­day for Romania and Kosovo res­pec­tively in League C.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024