Saudi Arabia gave four-times World Cup winners Italy a real run for their money on Monday night.
The Green Falcons found themselves two goals down after 68 minutes following strikes by Mario Balotelli and Andrea Belotti, but they halved the deficit with this goal from Yahya Al-Shehri. It was his seventh goal for his country and his second in three matches.
WATCH: Yahya Al-Shehri score his seventh goal for Saudi Arabia in last night's friendly with Italy.#SaudiArabiaItaly #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/OBzghJT5n5
— Arab News (@arabnews) May 29, 2018
And then they almost grabbed a dramatic equalizer late on when Fahad Al-Muwallad seized on a loose pass by Domenico Criscito, rounded Alessio Romagnoli only to see Gianluigi Donnarumma pulled off the sort of save that showed why he has already played more than 100 times for AC Milan by the age of 19. See the video below to watch Donnarumma deny Al-Muwallad.
WATCH: See just how close Fahad Muwallad came to scoring an equaliser for Saudi Arabia against Italy last night.#WorldCup2018 #SaudiArabiaItaly pic.twitter.com/Ecz0eAZYkU
— Arab News (@arabnews) May 29, 2018
After Donnarumma denied Al-Muwallad a late equalizer, Italy held on for their first win since their 1-0 World Cup qualifier away to Albania on October 9, which was followed by two draws and two defeats.
“I’m satisfied with the first half-performance,” said Roberto Mancini. “The difficulties of the second half were down to tiredness due to the extra fitness training we’ve been doing over the last few days. Saudi Arabia are approaching peak form because they are going to the World Cup. I wasn’t angry about the goal we conceded. I thought it was down to fatigue.”
Saudi Arabia play two more warm-up games, against Peru on June 3 and Germany on June 8, before kicking off their World Cup campaign.
“In the second half we held our own against one of the best teams in the world,” said Saudi coach Antonio Pizzi. “Although they are not in the World Cup, they have a great coach, an unparalleled history.”
