Soccer-Italy beat Bosnia 1-0 in final pre-Euro 2024 friendly
EMPOLI, Italy (Reuters) -Italy edged Bosnia 1-0 on Sunday as midfielder Davide Frattesi scored a stunning first-half goal in their final warm-up match ahead of the European Championship starting in Germany next week.

It was another largely disappointing performance from Italy who took the lead in the 38th minute when Frattesi scored with a superb first-time finish into the roof of the net from a Federico Chiesa cross.

"There is room for improvement. If we want to be ready, we have to put in something more and we will get there," Frattesi told Rai.

"We created the opportunities, but we need to manage them better because we will have fewer of them in the group. However, we saw some good things."

Italy are in a tough Group B at the Euros where they will face three-times champions Spain, Croatia and Albania.

It was another stellar performance from Frattesi, who is the Azzurri's top scorer since his debut in June 2022, having found the net five times in 15 games.

The result, however, leaves manager Luciano Spalletti with a lot to think about ahead of the Euros as the defending champions often looked blunt in front of goal with striker Gianluca Scamacca wasting a number of opportunities.

They also went close to falling behind in the opening minutes, but Gianluigi Donnarumma made a fine save to deny a low strike by Bosnia midfielder Haris Hajradinovic.

The Italy keeper made another save in the 18th minute when Bosnia, who are ranked 74th and failed to qualify for Euro 2024, had another good chance through Jusuf Gazibegovic, whose free kick was heading just under the bar.

"We did what we had to do," Spalletti told Sky Sport. "We are convinced that we have a good team, we will just have to get into the atmosphere of a real match.

"We had two almost completely different teams play, to see them all a bit, because at least we have the opportunity to tell them something that needs to be found to improve things. We don't have much time."

Spalletti made nine changes from Tuesday's 0-0 draw against Turkey, retaining forward Chiesa and midfielder Jorginho in the starting lineup.

Italy start their Euro 2024 campaign on Saturday against Albania before facing Spain on June 20 and Croatia four days later.

(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in GdanskEditing by Toby Davis)
EMPOLI, Italy (Reuters) -Italy edged Bosnia 1-0 on Sunday as midfielder Davide Frattesi scored a stunning first-half goal in their final warm-up match ahead of the European Championship starting in Germany next week.