REGGIO NELL’EMILIA, ITALY – JUNE 9: Giacomo Raspadori of Italy during the FIFA 2026 Qualifier between Italy and Moldova at Mapei Stadium – Citta’ del Tricolore on June 09, 2025 in Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
Luciano Spalletti bowed out of the Italy job with a 2-0 victory over Moldova, but Giacomo Raspadori and Andrea Cambiaso goals failed to disguise the very clear reasons why he was fired.
The Azzurri went into this second World Cup qualifier in a very strange situation, as Spalletti had already announced after the opening 3-0 defeat to Norway that he had been fired, and this would be his last game. Injuries continued to affect choices, so Luca Ranieri got his senior debut, with Andrea Cambiaso, Federico Dimarco, Davide Frattesi and Samuele Ricci stepping in. Moldova lost both their games so far, 5-0 to Norway and 3-2 to Estonia, and were missing suspended midfielders Vadim Rata and Maxim Cojocaru.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Confidence was rock bottom and it showed, especially when Moldova had the ball in the net after nine minutes with Oleg Reabciuk’s cross for the glancing Ion Nicolaescu header at the near post. Fortunately for the Nazionale, it was ruled offside by VAR.
Italy’s first real possibilità came on 17 minutes, as debutant Ranieri was inches away from a goal on his debut, the header thumping the crossbar on a Giacomo Raspadori free kick.
Nicolaescu went down under pressure from Dimarco on the counter-attack, but not enough for a penalty, then fired over from a tricky angle.
Mateo Retegui turned to redirect a charged down effort from 12 yards, drawing a difficult save out of the goalkeeper.
Dimarco and Retegui both scuffed finishes wide of the near post, but Italy finally found a breakthrough when the Samuele Ricci effort was charged down, but it continued with a cross from the left knocked down by Ranieri for Jack Raspadori’s smart half-volley from 14 yards into the near bottom corner. It was a special moment in his hometown stadium.
Moldova woke up and poured forward before half-time, threatening repeatedly on set plays. Gianluigi Donnarumma parried the Reabciuk scorcher and was glad to see an Artur Ionita follow-up flash across the face of goal.
Dimarco needed a goal-line clearance on the Daniel Dumbravanu free header from another corner, while Nicolaescu’s header whistled just wide.
However, Italy doubled their advantage when substitute Riccardo Orsolini dribbled to the by-line and pulled back, Frattesi scuffed it, but only into the path of Cambiaso to sweep in from nine yards.
Frattesi had two consecutive strikes charged down and Orsolini blasted over from the edge of the area, while Tonali stung the goalkeeper’s gloves.
Frattesi should’ve done better with a scuffed finish straight at the goalkeeper after an Alessandro Bastoni ball floated over the top.
Stina fired straight at Donnarumma after pouncing on the goalkeeper’s error, while Lorenzo Lucca couldn’t keep his header on target in stoppages.
Moldova nearly got a goal back at the 94th minute, but Diego Coppola threw himself in the path of Stina’s control and half-volley from seven yards.
Italy 2-0 Moldova
Raspadori 43 (I), Cambiaso 50 (I)
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46′ 7
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Image:Getty
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