Italy were stunned on Saturday as Albania took the lead against the defending European champions with a record-shattering goal just 23 seconds into the teams' Group B clash at Euro 2024.
Nedim Bajrami smashed the ball into the top corner to record the fastest-ever goal at a European Championships final after capitalising on a blunder by Inter left-back Federico Dimarco.
Albania had kicked off the game and pumped the ball into the corner to give Italy a throw-in, which Dimarco threw into his own penalty box looking for a teammate unaware that the Sassuolo teammate was lurking and ready to capitalise.
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The Albanian’s strike gave Gianluigi Donnarumma no chance of making a save and got the deeply unfancied side off to an absolute dream start.
Albania are playing in only their second-ever major tournament finals having previously exited at the group stage of Euro 2016, missing out on going through as one of the best third-placed teams.
Italy would have hoped for a far better kick-off to proceedings after surprisingly failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. The Azzurri beat England at Wembley in the final of Euro 2020 on a penalty shootout, and were slightly stuttering in their qualification campaign for this summer.
WHAT A START FOR ALBANIA! 😱#ITAALB #BBCEuros #Euro2024 pic.twitter.com/iXhuMwPgcmJune 15, 2024
Italy equalised after 11 minutes through Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella put the Azzurri in front just five minutes later.
Earlier on Saturday, Spain beat Croatia 3-0 in the other Group B clash in Germany.
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