Individual Errors, Poor Finishing Cost Italy Precious Points Against Bulgaria

A great start to Italy's Euro 2016 qualifier against Bulgaria came to a screeching halt, thanks to some very un-Italian mistakes.

After being buffeted by the reaction to the strange saga of Claudio Marchisio's right knee, there were questions as to whether the Italians would come in distracted.  The Juventus player's absence was certainly felt in midfield, where replacement Andrea Bertolacci was invisible for the first half.

The rest of the team was much the same from Antonio Conte's earlier squads in qualifying.  The starting strike partnership of Ciro Immobile and Simone Zaza remained the same.  Their contribution, however, was a far cry from what they supplied in the fall.

Zaza, on a cold streak with Sassuolo, was frequently outmuscled in the penalty area and didn't deliver the right balls when in possession outside the box.  His pressure on a loose ball led to the early own goal, but his contribution was negligible thereafter.

It's hard to imagine anyone looking worse, but Immobile managed it.  Two minutes after the Azzurri went down, he had a massive chance to put the match back on terms from a Marco Verratti free-kick.  

It was easier to score, but he somehow fizzed his header wide.  In the 69th minute he did well to skip through a pair of defenders in the box but only managed to put the ball a few inches to the side of Nikolay Mihaylov.  Bertolacci's follow-up was woeful.

The Bulgarians' shock lead came from two goals in a six-minute stretch early in the first half.  Both came gift-wrapped thanks to uncharacteristic individual errors committed by the vaunted Juventus players that make up the Azzurri's backbone.

The first came in the 11th minute when Leonardo Bonucci was caught slightly higher up the field than he should have been and then compounded his error by diving in to intercept a pass that he was never going to reach.

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Ivelyn Popov gratefully accepted the gift and buried an unstoppable shot past Salvatore Sirigu, who was deputizing in goal for the flu-striken Gianluigi Buffon.

Six minutes later the Bulgarians were in position to pull out a shock when Zaza mishandled a pass in the center circle.  The Bulgarians duly counterattacked, making use of acres of space to get into position to cross.

Andrea Barzagli was the last man to the striker but was never going to get in front of him.  The smart thing to do would have been to hang back and play Ilian Micanski offside.  Instead, the veteran tried to go through his back, and the Karlsruhe man sent an easy header past a stranded Sirigu and into the back of the net to give his country a 2-1 lead.

Italy had the better of the chances from then on.  Immobile's howler was only the beginning.  Zaza sent more than one shot into the back of a Bulgarian defender, and Matteo Darmian had a stinging shot deflected for a corner right on the stroke of half-time.

Conte has a reputation for saving his substitutions until very late in the game, but here he took fairly quick measures to carve out the rot.  Eder took the place of Zaza 13 minutes into the second half, and Bertolacci followed him to the bench in the 72nd minute.  Roberto Soriano had a much more positive effect on the game, and Italy began to come forward in waves, sending balls in toward a shaky-looking Mihaylov.

After a 77th-minute switch of Manolo Gabbiadini for Luca Antonelli, that surge became a siege, and the Bulgarians were pinned back hard in their own half.  Giorgio Chiellini—who has already scored on a pair of headers in qualifying, fizzed one over from a good corner delivery.

With eight minutes left, it was one of Conte's controversial oriundi selections that made the difference.  Eder—born in Brazil but with Italian grandparents—received a pass on the edge of the box and curled a delicious strike past Mihaylov and into the side of the goal for a crucial equalizer.

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With the scores level, the Azzurri smelled blood, but Eder's effort was the exception rather than the rule for Conte's strike force.  A minute later Chiellini flicked a corner into Immobile's path, but the former Capocannoniere couldn't make contact.

Less than a minute later Immobile slipped a ball to Gabbiadini, who controlled, turned and fired.  Conte was practically already celebrating when the ball sizzled a ball's width wide of the post.

This was a game that Italy should have controlled from the get-go.  They defended well.  Aside from the chances gifted them by Bonucci, Zaza and Barzagli the Bulgarians did not manufacture any clear-cut opportunities at Sirigu's goal and were limited to more speculative efforts.

On the other end the Azzurri dominated possession, particularly in the second half.  Considering the sitters missed by Immobile and Gabbiadini they should have had at least four goals—maybe more, if they had made more of an innumerable number of half-chances created throughout the game.

Ultimately, the game finished on the same score as it did two years ago when Italy travelled to Sofia for World Cup qualifying—2-2.  It was a game that should teach Conte a few lessons—most notably about the strike partnership that he's relied on thus far in his tenure.

Recent form should have told Conte that Immobile and Zaza might have been shaky, as indeed they proved. With players such as Gabbiadini and Eder in far better form, he should have looked elsewhere to tip his spear.

It also may be time to reconsider the 3-5-2 that carried Conte so far with Juventus.  The coach proved supremely adaptable in his early days at Juve before the makeup of the squad shoehorned him into the 3-5-2 for the final two years of his time there.  Relying on it early on in his tenure is understandable, particularly with the entirety of the defense he had at Juve available to him.

With the pick of Italy now available to him, Conte should consider a different shape to inject fresh ideas. Gabbiadini has proven impressive on the right wing, and young players such as Domenico Berardi could prove ideal to pair with him.  Every team needs flexibility, especially on the national level.  He should use the friendly against England as an experimentation ground.

The errors made in the back were uncharacteristic and unlikely to be repeated.  The lack of finishing at the other end, however, is a concern that Conte is going to have to address going forward.  Giuseppe Rossi's return from injury may make a difference there, but in his absence Conte may have to dig into the youth ranks for the likes of Berardi or Andrea Belotti.

The lack of clinical finishing has been a concern over the last few international breaks.  It's the biggest problem Conte currently faces and the one he must rectify if Italy is to get to the Euros as a top seed.