Italy won their opening European Under-21 Championship game, beating Denmark 2-0 with a Lorenzo Pellegrini bicycle-kick and Andrea Petagna strike.

However, the night was somewhat overshadowed by Milan fans throwing fake dollar bills at Gianluigi Donnarumma in protest at a contract dispute.

Italy won their opening European Under-21 Championship game, beating Denmark 2-0 with a Lorenzo Pellegrini bicycle-kick and Andrea Petagna strike.

However, the night was somewhat overshadowed by Milan fans throwing fake dollar bills at Gianluigi Donnarumma in protest at a contract dispute.

The Azzurrini began the 2017 European Under-21 Championship as one of the favourites, as their starting XI in Krakow had a total 658 Serie A appearances between them, several already making their senior Italy debuts. 

Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-0 earlier this afternoon in Group C and only the winners would be guaranteed passage to the semi-finals, along with the best runner-up of the three groups.

Italy dominated early possession, but found it tough to break down the Danes, so Frederik Borsting blasted over on the counter and Andrea Conti hit the side-netting on a corner.

Marco Benassi’s scorcher from distance stung the goalkeeper’s gloves, but the first half was dominated by a bizarre incident. The Milan Club Poland was already behind the goal with a banner that read ‘Dollarumma’ and during a corner they threw handfuls of fake dollars at the shot-stopper who refused to sign a new contract this week. Play had to be halted while ball boys removed the paper.

Andrea Conti created a chance with a smart pull-back, but Andrea Petagna tripped on the ball as he tried to turn.

After the restart, Andreas Maxso flung himself in the path of a Lorenzo Pellegrini strike and the pressure paid off with a moment of sheer magic.

Conti’s cross was knocked down and Pellegrini performed a stunning bicycle kick from 12 yards to loop into the far corner past a helpless Jeppe Hojbjerg. It was a truly spectacular strike from the Sassuolo midfielder.

Benassi was caught in possession soon after and Antonio Barreca had to sprint back for a block and Andrew Hjulsager’s free kick was over the bar.

A dangerous Hjulsager cross from the right flew across the face of goal with Marcus Ingvartsen and Borsting just failing to get their heads to it.

Donnarumma’s first save of the game was on 76 minutes, at full stretch to fingertip a Hjulsager curler out of the far bottom corner.

Federico Chiesa came off the bench and cut in from the left, his ferocious strike forcing a tough save at the near post. Andrea Petagna had a poor game overall, but woke up in the last few minutes, testing the goalkeeper twice in quick succession and then scoring when holding off his marker to meet a Chiesa cross from the left.

Denmark 0-2 Italy

Pellegrini 54 (I), Petagna 86 (I)

Denmark: Hojbjerg; Holst, Banggaard, Maxso, Rasmussen; Hjulsager, Christensen, Norgaard, Borsting (Duelund 79); L Andersen (Hansen 80), Ingvartsen (Zohore 72)

Italy: Donnarumma; Conti, Rugani, Caldara, Barreca; Benassi (Grassi 72), Gagliardini, Pellegrini; Berardi (Chiesa 67), Petagna (Cerri 88), Bernardeschi

Ref: Kruzliak (SVK)

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