{"id":914125,"date":"2026-10-03T01:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T01:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914125\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T01:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T01:52:10","slug":"nations-league-italy-earn-draw-against-10-man-france-northern-ireland-stun-ukraine-nations-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914125\/","title":{"rendered":"Nations League: Italy earn draw against 10-man France, Northern Ireland stun Ukraine | Nations League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zinedine Zidane\u2019s first home game in charge of France ended with a 1-1 draw against Italy in the Nations League<\/a> on Friday. Visiting keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a string of saves to frustrate fans at Stade de France, while the hosts ended the game with 10 men after Dayot Upamecano\u2019s late dismissal.<\/p>\n

Michael Olise put France<\/a> ahead in the 55th minute with a curling shot that went in off the crossbar, following a short free-kick taken by Rayan Cherki. But poor defending midway through the second half allowed Italy defender Alessandro Bastoni to run through and clip a low shot inside the right post.<\/p>\n

Moise Kean missed a close-range chance early on for Italy<\/a>, shooting straight at goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Donnarumma made a double save from Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Dou\u00e9 early in the second half, then produced a brilliant low save to deny Adrien Rabiot moments after Italy\u2019s equaliser.<\/p>\n

Upamecano was sent off late in the game for picking up a second yellow card, but the hosts kept pushing for a winner, and Donnarumma had to claw away Eduardo Camavinga\u2019s shot in stoppage time to preserve a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have liked to win for our fans tonight but I was obviously really touched and delighted to be back at the Stade de France,\u201d Zidane said afterwards. \u201cI am happy with the performance albeit not with the result. We had chances to score a second goal and we didn\u2019t do it. But I am really proud of my players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Italy manager, Roberto Mancini, was pleased with his side\u2019s efforts. \u201cI think this was a great performance tonight against one of the best teams in the world, with very positive aspects to it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are on the right road, and we need to keep playing this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

France stay top of Group A1<\/a>, a point clear of Belgium who eased to a 3-0 home win over bottom side Turkey in Li\u00e8ge. The two neighbours meet again on Monday at the Stade de France, while Italy host Turkey in Bologna.<\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne celebrates after scoring one of his two goals for Belgium in Li\u00e8ge. Photograph: Virginie Lefour\/Belga\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Kevin De Bruyne, in his 127th match for the Red Devils, scored the opening goal with a cool finish from the edge of the box, after a nice one-two with Dodi Lukebakio. Turkey posed the greater attacking danger after the Napoli midfielder\u2019s opener but could not find a leveller and were punished just before the hour mark.<\/p>\n

De Bruyne claimed his second goal in the 59th minute, curling a ball from the edge of the box past Turkey goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir into the top corner. Romelu Lukaku, Belgium\u2019s all-time record goalscorer, added a third in the 76th minute, skewing the ball home from Charles De Ketelaere\u2019s low cross.<\/p>\n

In League B, Northern Ireland stunned Ukraine 3-0 in Slovakia to go clear at the top of their group and boost their hopes of promotion to the top tier.<\/p>\n

Ciaron Brown, the only player in Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s starting lineup over the age of 24, scored twice either side of Isaac Price\u2019s goal in Trnava. The away win puts Northern Ireland on seven points from three games, and they are still yet to concede going into Monday\u2019s clash with Georgia in Belfast.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s positive start was quickly rewarded as Kieran Morrison floated a corner to the back post where Ruairi McConville headed it back for Brown, earning his 33rd cap, to prod home despite the desperate efforts of Illia Zabarnyi on the line.<\/p>\n

Ciaron Brown (left, No 22) celebrates his second goal of the night in Trnava. Photograph: D\u00e9nes Erd\u0151s\/AP<\/p>\n

Georgiy Sudakov was the first Ukraine player to get a sight of goal but his 19th-minute effort was straight at keeper Pierce Charles, and moments later the hosts were 2-0 down. Morrison\u2019s first-time ball into the box was met powerfully by Price at the back post \u2013 earning Morrison an assist in his first competitive international.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s second came in bizarre fashion just after the hour \u2013 the 28-year-old Oxford defender went up to flick on Pierce Charles\u2019 free-kick from inside the Northern Ireland half, and Ukraine goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk let the bouncing ball slip through his legs to wrap up a remarkable result.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great result for us, a great performance,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cThe early goal helps settle us into the game. The second goal was a brilliant goal. We worked it the length of the pitch. We were patient. We could have crossed it early but that allowed us to get more men in the box and it\u2019s a brilliant header from Isaac.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third goal is fortuitous but it\u2019s a mistake by the opposition, so we have to capitalise on that, but I thought throughout our performance was brilliant,\u201d the Northern Ireland manager added. \u201cWe limited the opposition to crosses and shots from outside the box and I thought we defended brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liverpool full-back Milos Kerkez scored the only goal in the other Group B2 tie to earn Hungary a 1-0 win over Georgia, moving the Magyars level with Ukraine in second place with four points from three games.<\/p>\n

Edin Dzeko brought the curtain down on his international career during Bosnia and Herzegovina\u2019s 1-1 draw with Sweden. The 40-year-old was withdrawn after 63 minutes of his 152nd appearance, with the hosts trailing after Viktor Gy\u00f6keres had scored two minutes earlier. Kerim Alajbegovic ensured the spoils would be shared with an 80th-minute effort.<\/p>\n

In the group\u2019s other game, Poland thumped Romania 6-0 with Robert Lewandowski hitting a hat-trick. Radu Dragusin was sent off in the 22nd minute for bringing Lewandowski down in the area, and the veteran striker got up to convert the penalty. Lewandowski struck again in the 47th and 86th minutes, with Piotr Zielinski, Jan Bednarek and a Virgil Ghita own goal completing the scoring in Warsaw.<\/p>\n

Robert Lewandowski scores from the penalty spot to kick off Poland\u2019s 6-0 rout of Romania. Photograph: Marek Antoni Iwa\u0144czuk\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The Faroe Islands earned an impressive 1-1 home draw with Group C3 leaders Slovakia, Adrian Justinussen\u2019s second-half goal cancelling out a Gunnar Vatnhamar own goal before the break. Moldova moved up to second in the group with a 2-1 away victory over Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the third tier, Vasilije Adzic scored twice as Group C2 leaders Montenegro won 2-1 in Latvia, while Cyprus beat Armenia 2-0 despite a second-half red card for Kostas Pileas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zinedine Zidane\u2019s first home game in charge of France ended with a 1-1 draw against Italy in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-914125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}