Italy have qualified for next summer's Euro 2016 tournament and maintained their unbeaten record in qualifying with their comfortable 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan.
The Italians took the lead early on through Eder before the minnows managed to cancel it out thanks to a Dimitri Nazarov effort before Stephan El Shaarawy regained lead for Italy just before the break. Matteo Darmian rounded off the scoring in the second period and it got worse for Azerbaijan when Badavi Huseynov was dismissed.
Eder opens the scoring early on
The hosts had early pressure in the opening ten minutes with Rahid Amirguliev testing Gianlugi Buffon but against the run of play, Italy took the lead. The move all came from Paris Saint-Germain’s Marco Verratti ,who played a superb pass to Eder who slotted home.
Nazarov equalises
Bang on the half hour mark Azerbaijan managed to get a shock equaliser, Rusian Qurbanov managed to direct his headed pass into Nazarov who was waiting in the centre of the area who did well to slide the ball past Buffon.
El Shaarawy strikes
AS Monaco forward El Shaarawy came very close on two separate occasions as Italians looked to regain the lead but the two efforts proved too high of the target but it proved to be third time lucky in the 42nd minute.
Antonio Candreva helped the ball onto the forward who managed, despite the pressure around him to nestle the ball in the back of the net from close range.
The Italians stepped up the gear at the beginning of the second period with Graziano Pelle coming very close on two separate occasions, his first effort was on target but was well saved and the second only moments later was just wide of the mark.
Darmian rounds it off
The game was rounded off in style 65 minutes in when Manchester United full-back Darmian added a third, he managed to make it up the field before he hit a sweet shot from outside the area into the bottom corner.
Azerbaijan looked to get a goal back entering the final twenty minutes of the match with a string of opportunities, first up was Rasad Sadiqov who managed to get on the end of Afran Ismayilov’s cross but unfortunately it was straight down the throat of Buffon.
He turned provider for goal scorer Nazarov but he couldn’t replicate his first-half antics as it was once again straight at Buffon.
Huseynov dismissed
Their difficult task was made almost impossible when Huseynov was giving his marching orders two minutes from the end.
Sebastian Giovinco almost grabbed a fourth right at the death when he hit a direct free-kick towards goal but it clattered off the crossbar but enough had already been done to secure their ticket to France next summer.