Italy reaffirmed their status as the topdogs of Group H with a 1-0 victory over Bulgaria in Sicily, edging closer to Euro 2016 qualification.
Daniele De Rossi converted his 3rd minute penalty at the second time of asking before seeing red midway through the second period.
Automatic qualification is now improbable for the visitors, who posed little threat on the evening as Conte's side earned their fourth clean sheet of the qualifying campaign.
Team news
Antonio Conte made five changes to the side who beat Malta on Thursday evening.
Mattia De Sciglio replaced Pasqual at left-back, while De Rossi came in for the veteran Andrea Pirlo in midfield. Meanwhile, Marco Parolo and Antonio Candreva replaced Andrea Bertolacci and Manolo Gabbiadini after impressing during their cameo appearance in Thursday's 1-0 victory.
Eder also dropped to the bench, replaced by Stephan El Shaarawy out wide.
Bulgaria, in the meantime, began in their accustomed 4-2-3-1 formation, with Suwon Samsung Bluewings forward Iliyan Mitsanski leading the line.
Creative fulcrum Ivelin Popov, who plies his trade in the Russian Premier League, lined up as a No.10.
Italy stamp their authority
Having began the clash with a point to prove, Italy came out of the blocks firing, going close after 43 seconds via Stephan El Shaarawy. Pelle fired a tame effort at Mitrev's goal from Candreva's cut-back before the AS Monaco man's acrobatic rebound bounced onto the roof of the net.
Italy continued as they meant to go on and two minutes later they were awarded a penalty, with Candreva adjudged to have been tripped inside the penalty area from Minev's attempted clearance. De Rossi stepped up and slotted the ball home, but was ordered to retake the spot-kick after the officials spotted an encroachment from Leonardo Bonucci. Undeterred, the veteran made no mistake with his second attempt, guiding into the far corner and out of the goalkeeper's reach.
Azzurri onslaught continues
If the aim was to exorcise Thursday night's demons, then Conte's side were well on their way to achieving that. Shortly after the opener, El Shaarawy latched onto a Pelle knockdown and tested Minev between the sticks, before Pelle himself went close from a Marco Verratti free-kick.
Mitsanki's effort notwithstanding, Bulgaria failed to muster an effort on goal and Italy could have doubled their advantage through De Sciglio in the 31st minute. Pelle failed to connect with a Candreva cross, but the the Milan full-back was there, waiting to pounce on the edge of the area, but his strike was comfortably held by the Bulgaria No.1.
The assault continued and the best chance of the half fell to the feet of Candreva, an everpresent in the opening period, from a De Sciglio cut-back, but the Lazio midfielder lacked conviction from the edge of the area.
Parolo then tried his luck from another Pelle knockdown, but Minev was, again, equal to the midfielder's effort.
Clash turns sour
Ominously for Bulgaria, the second 45 began in similar fashion to the first, with Parolo forcing fingertips from Minev seconds after the restart.
The game then turned sour when De Rossi saw red for a kickout at Micanski. The Bulgarian, who appeared to do little to provoke the Roma stalwart, also received his marching orders from referee Sergei Karasav.
Bulgaria influence grows but Italy hang on
Italy regained their composure soon after, going close via El Shaarawy on separate occasions.
The ex-Milan winger went close on 65 minutes, jinxing past several Bulgaria defenders before curling his effort towards the far stick. Minev, though, reacted smartly to deny the mercurial youngster.
Bulgaria, to their credit, looked more potent after the sending-off and constructed a promising opportunity 12 minutes from time. Substitute Alexandrov picked up possession inside the 18-yard box but was swiftly snuffed out by Darmian and co.
Bulgaria continued to flood forward in search of an equaliser, with Italy appearing content to relinquish possession to the visitors, and the Azzurri should have capitalised. Candreva, Leonardo Bonucci and substitute Alessandro Florenzi broke quickly, but the latter’s cross evaded everyone.
Bonucci then explicably headed over from two yards out, but the Azzurri clung on to earn their second consecutive 1-0 victory as they solidify their place at the summit of Group H.