Italy kept up their outstanding form as Roberto Mancini's men made it three wins from as many games at Euro 2020 with a 1-0 victory over 10-man Wales.
With progression from Group A already assured, Mancini named a much-changed side in Rome, but the Azzurri's squad depth was on show on Sunday.
Indeed, it was one of Italy's new faces who got the winner – Matteo Pessina becoming the youngest Italian player to score on his first start at a major tournament since Antonio Cassano at Euro 2004. Pessina's moment came with a neat flick in the 39th minute.
Wales' comeback hopes appeared to have been dashed when Ethan Ampadu saw red, although Gareth Bale then missed a golden chance. Yet Italy sealed an 11th straight win and made it 30 games unbeaten in the process to match a long-standing national record.
One of eight Italy changes, Andrea Belotti went close to connecting with an acrobatic attempt early on, before the Torino striker flashed a low strike across goal in the 24th minute.
In search of his first Wales goal on his 102nd cap, Chris Gunter headed over from Daniel James' corner, but Italy made the breakthrough six minutes before half-time.
Joe Allen fouled Marco Verratti out on the right, with the Paris Saint-Germain playmaker floating in a cross which was met by Pessina, whose deft flick found the bottom-left corner.
Wales had a let-off after the break – Federico Bernardeschi hitting the base of the left-hand post with a long-range free-kick.
A mistake from Francesco Acerbi gave Aaron Ramsey a chance, but he failed to get a shot off, and Wales were soon down to 10 when Ampadu caught Bernardeschi late and received a rather harsh straight red.
Danny Ward made a brilliant save to deny Belotti, and Bale should have made Italy pay for their profligacy, but he lashed over on the volley with only Gianluigi Donnarumma to beat.
Ward's save counted in the end, however, with Wales securing second place in the group thanks to a better goal difference than Switzerland, who beat Turkey in Baku.
'We will see' – Pep waiting to make Haaland call ahead of City-Liverpool
Erling Haaland is still recovering from his groin injury, with Pep Guardiola saying a final decision on his fitness for this weekend would be made later on Friday.
Haaland has enjoyed an astonishing first season at Manchester City, scoring 42 goals in all competitions – comfortably the most of any player in Europe's top five leagues.
But his momentum was checked heading into the international break by an injury that kept the forward from linking up with Norway.
City have a huge game against Liverpool on Saturday and are hopeful Haaland will be back, although Guardiola was eager to take his time with that call.
"Erling is recovering," the manager said. "We have the last training session and we will see how he feels."
Guardiola, who added Phil Foden would be out for "two or three weeks" following appendix surgery, was asked if he would risk Haaland if he was not convinced he was fully fit.
The City boss was happy to trust the 22-year-old's judgement, but he is also confident his side would cope without their superstar striker.
In the Premier League, Haaland has scored 28 goals, making up 42 per cent of City's total this term and earning 20 points. All three are high marks for a City player in a single season.
"The doctors and especially the players will decide," Guardiola said. "How does he feel? Yesterday I spoke with him and he feels good. But we will see, we will see what happens.
"We have scored a lot of goals this season, and he's scored an incredible amount of goals, but in the past we also scored a lot of goals.
"Since we were here, and with Roberto Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrini, always Man City was a team that scored a lot of goals in the season – with different players, different strikers.
"They scored a lot of goals, which is what we will try to do until the end of the season."
City have scored the second-most goals across Europe in all competitions this season, with their 109 trailing Bayern Munich's 112. They are the only two teams to reach three figures.
Arsenal's Saka lands first Premier League Player of the Month award
Bukayo Saka has been named the Premier League's Player of the Month for the first time, scooping the prize after helping leaders Arsenal win all four of their games in the competition in March.
Saka hit three goals and added two assists in four appearances during the month as Arsenal posted wins over Everton, Bournemouth, Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Only Manchester City's Erling Haaland (33) and Tottenham's Harry Kane (23) have been involved in more Premier League goals than Saka this season (22).
The 21-year-old – considered a candidate to be named player of the season – is the only player to reach double figures for both goals (12) and assists (10) in the competition this term.
Having helped Arsenal establish an eight-point lead over City as the Gunners chase their first league title since 2004, Saka also scored with a stunning long-range strike as England beat Ukraine 2-0 in the international break.
Saka saw off competition from Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister, Tyrone Mings, Mohamed Salah and Arsenal team-mate Leandro Trossard to win the Premier League award.
He becomes the second Arsenal star to land the monthly prize this campaign, after Martin Odegaard was named the best player across November and December either side of the World Cup break.
Rybakina matches Serena Williams aces feat and follows in footsteps of Graf
Elena Rybakina moved one win away from completing the 'Sunshine Double' and did so on the back of a serving feat last achieved by Serena Williams almost seven years ago.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina battled past Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals of the Miami Open, scoring a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win to book a clash with Petra Kvitova or Sorana Cirstea in the title match.
In doing so, Rybakina set up the chance of sealing an Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back double, a feat that only four women have pulled off before: Steffi Graf (1994, 1996), Kim Clijsters (2005), Victoria Azarenka (2016) and Iga Swiatek (2022).
She also becomes just the sixth woman to appear in the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami in the same year after Monica Seles (1991), Graf (1994), Lindsay Davenport (2000), Martina Hingis (2000) and Maria Sharapova (2012).
The Williams accomplishment that Rybakina has matched stands as testament to the Kazakhstani player's serving prowess.
She has served at least 10 aces in each of her five matches in Miami, and Williams at Wimbledon in 2016 was the last player from the WTA Tour to serve 10-plus aces in five matches in a single tournament.
Rybakina lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in January but has put that behind her and enjoyed a stellar March. She beat Swiatek in the Indian Wells semi-finals before toppling Sabalenka in the final, and now another chance of a trophy awaits.
Discussing the challenge of completing the hard-court US double, Rybakina said: "It's really difficult, and because of different conditions in these two weeks by the matches you could see that it's much more difficult for me here than even in Indian Wells.
"It's just the finals, still close but the same time far. The Sunshine Double, I try my best, and hopefully I can make it. I didn't expect to be in the final. I knew that it was going to be very tough from the beginning, from the first match. And it was, actually. First two matches was really tough."
She came through dicey three-setters against Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa before kicking on, winning in straight sets against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Pegula.
"Actually, the whole two weeks were really tough," Rybakina said after seeing off Pegula late on Thursday. "I'm happy to be in another final."
With her runs in Indian Wells and Miami, the Russian-born 23-year-old has already won 13 main-draw matches at WTA 1000 level in 2023, matching her personal best for an entire season, achieved last year.
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