The much awaited debut of Southampton hit man Graziano Pelle’ for Italy finally came against Malta. Yesterday he partnered Ciro Immobile in attack, in lieu of Simone Zaza, and celebrated with his first goal for the national side, giving Italy a narrow but deserved win over Malta.

Italy thus maintain their perfect start in this qualifying campaign

This result leaves Malta at the bottom of the Group but, as expected, our players were a team that seemed determined to stand up to their superior opponents and show they were no soft touch.

Malta had spells, when they looked mildly threateing especially through Clayton Failla’s efforts, mainly from deadball situations.

They had to play with ten men for a whole 50 minutes soon after conceding Italy’s opener until numerical parity was restored with Bonucci’s sending off  on 73 minutes.

Showing true commitment and enjoying a slice of good luck, with the woodwork coming four times to their rescue, Malta were applauded by the nearly 17,000 crowd as they left Ta’ Qali national stadium with heads held high.

True to all pre-match talk, the Italians made four changes in their line-up yesterday, after coming under heavy criticism following their lacklustre win against Azerbaijan three days earlier. Besides the inclusion of Pelle’, Antonio Candreva and Manuel Pasqual were brought in place of Andrea Ranocchia and Mattia De Sciglio, with Andrea Pirlo relegated to the bench and replaced by the fully fit PSG midfileder Marco Verratti.

Curiously enough, Ranocchia’s name was omitted from the offical team sheet distributed before kick-off but was later included among the substitutes upon UEFA’s consent.

Malta coach Pietro Ghedin effected only one change from the side that started agaianst Norway on Friday, with John Mintofff replacing Ryan Fenech.

Mintoff played wide on  the right trying to block Pasqual’s incursions down the Italian left flank as Zach Musact, Andrei Agius and Ryan Camilleri stayed composed  at the back. Clayton Failla was the other wing back on the left holding out Candreva. Rowen Muscat and Paul Fenech were the two anchor-men in front of the defence, with Roderick Briffa deplyed in the middle linking the midfield with front runners Andre Schembri and Michael Mifsud.

It is worth mentioning that the Malta defence was again deprived of the injured Jonatahn Caruana and Alex Muscat as well as the suspended Steve Borg.

But the Maltese stayed composed, well drilled at the back and after surviving an early scare when Immobile’s shot on the turn went tantalising wide, Malta threatened seriously  on the quarter hour. Failla picked a scrappy clearance by the Italian defence and his powerful low drive from the edge of the area was deflected into a corner.

With the Italians gradually finding pace and rhythm, they grew menacing with the delivery of crosses by Candreva and Pasqual from both flanks.

Within a minute they twice struck the woodwork as Pelle’s firm header off a Pasqual cross, hit the underside of the bar and was cleared into a corner. From the resultant Pasqual corner, Verratti’s header was again held out by the bar.

On 23 minutes Italy made the breakthrough. Keeper Hogg managed to hold out Immobile’s effort on a Pasqual corner from the left, but was beaten by Graziano Pelle’s tap-in from close range.

Hardly had Malta shrugged off the setback when they suffered another blow with Michael Mifsud’s dismissal, with a straight red card, four minutes later, in what looked like a harsh refereeing decision for his dangerous play on Florenzi in midfield.

With a goal and a man down, with Briffa taking over the captain’s armband and Schembri becoming the most advanced forward, Malta’s task became more laborious.

Luckily, the Italians failed to press forward and past the half hour, Malta’s response came from a Failla powerful free kick, some 25 metres out, which narrowly missed the target.

As expected, Italy stepped up a gear after the interval as they retained territorial superiority. A cross shot from the right by Candreva clipped the bar and an immobile close header, on a Verratti cross, was saved by keeper Hogg.

For long stretches in the second half, the match resembled a training spin as Italy effected all three substitutions. The inclusion of Sebastian Giovinco past the hour, gave the Italians more mobility up front.

The match offered some excitement in the last quarter hour when Italy were also reduced to ten men, following Bonucci’s dismissal as he fouled Schembri, who had gone past him through the middle, in what looked also harsh judgement on the Juventus defender.

With numerical parity restored, Failla tested keeper Buffon with the resultant direct free kick as Italy remedied putting in Ogbonna for Pelle’. They almost doubled the score in added time as Giovinco ended his persistent run with a low diagonal shot that once again rebounded off the foot of the post with Hogg completely beaten.

But at the end Italy looked happy with the points  and Malta equally happy with their bold performance, that avoided humiliation.

Photos Jonathan Borg and AP, Report by Silvio Vella