Italy rout Estonia to give Gattuso perfect start, France beat Ukraine

Gennaro Gattuso enjoyed his start to life as Italy coach on Friday as his team beat Estonia 5-0 to get their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign back on track, while Kylian Mbappe struck as France began their bid with a win against Ukraine.

A World Cup winner as a combative midfielder in 2006, Gattuso was brought in as coach in June to stop Italy’s slide towards a third-consecutive missed World Cup finals.

His tenure started in style as second-half strikes by Moise Kean, Mateo Retegui -- who netted twice -- Giacomo Raspadori and Alessandro Bastoni fired Italy to three points and had fans chanting the coach’s name in Bergamo.

Italy are third in Group I after three matches, six points behind leaders Norway who have played one game more, and boast a superior goal difference.

“We played well and it was all down to the way the boys have conducted themselves this week,” said Gattuso.

“We’ve worked hard and there’s been a good atmosphere around the squad.

“When you play as attacking as we did tonight against a better team you expose yourself to risks, but today we were up against a side that had a bit les than us so it was the right thing to do to be so attack-minded.”

Three points separate Italy from second-placed Israel and the group’s play-off spot which is the likelier route for a place in next year’s finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico with only first place offering direct qualification.

Israel prepared for Monday’s meeting with Italy with a win of their own on Friday as they beat Moldova 4-0 in Chisinau.

In the Polish city of Wroclaw, Michael Olise’s early strike and Mbappe’s 51st goal for Les Bleus handed the 2018 World Cup winners a 2-0 victory over Ukraine as Group D got underway.

“It was an important match because of the limited number of games (to qualify) against a quality team. We could have sealed the deal in the first half because we were in control and created a lot of chances,” Deschamps said.

“We faltered for four or five minutes in the second half, but the main thing is that we got the result.” Olise started and finished the opening goal on 10 minutes when he released Bradley Barcola down the left flank from deep.

The Bayern Munich man ghosted the length of the pitch to arrive unmarked into the Ukraine box and calmly sweep Barcola’s return ball into the bottom corner.

Olise and half-time substitute Ousmane Dembele nearly doubled the visitors’ lead either side of the break but goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin denied them impressively.

Ukraine responded by coming within inches of levelling the encounter twice inside two minutes after the hour.

Ibrahima Konate first turned a goalbound Artem Dovbyk header off his own goal-line, before new Paris Saint-Germain signing Illia Zabarnyi struck the woodwork with a headed effort following a set-piece.

But Mbappe made the win safe for France when he raced onto a pinpoint through-ball from his Real Madrid team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni before cutting inside and rifling home on 82 minutes.

Deschamps had praise, in particular, for 23-year-old Olise after he netted his third goal in nine outings for Les Bleus.

“Michael is brilliant in everything he does, his movement, his combinations, his passing quality,” the coach said.

After the first matchday, France sit second in the four-team group behind Iceland, who beat Azerbaijan 5-0 in Reykjavik.

Elsewhere, Denmark and Scotland played out a goalless stalemate in Copenhagen as Group C started, with Greece topping the pool following their 5-1 victory at home to Belarus.

Switzerland opened Group B with a 4-0 win over Kosovo as group mates Sweden and Slovenia played out a 2-2 draw in Ljubljana.

Former World Cup runners-up Croatia struggled to a 1-0 win away to Faroe Islands to stay second in Group L.

Pool leaders Czech Republic beat third-placed Montenegro 2-0 to remain three points ahead of the Croats, although with two games in hand.

Agence France-Presse