Italy kept their World Cup qualifying campaign on track with a hard-fought 2-0 Group C win over Bulgaria who fell to their second consecutive defeat in Sofia on Sunday night.
Andrea Belotti got the first goal from the penalty spot just before the break with Manuel Locatelli sealing the win with his first ‘Azzurri’ goal with eight minutes to go. Roberto Mancini’s side are top of their group after winning their opener 2-0 against Northern Ireland in Parma on Thursday with Bulgaria losing 3-1 at home against Switzerland.
The four-time world champions missed out on the finals in 2018, but under Mancini extended their unbeaten run to 24 games, after their perfect Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. 
“There are no easy games,” said the former Manchester City coach. “Especially against a team like Bulgaria who gets behind the ball and waits for the counterattack. It’s obvious we find less space and it’s difficult to break the deadlock. Victory is the most important thing, the team has shown consistency. At this time of the season all teams are tired.”
Italy were without defender Giorgio Chiellini with forwards Domenico Berardi and Francesco Caputo also ruled out, with six changes from the side who beat Northern Ireland. Torino captain Belotti started up front alongside Juventus forward Federico Chiesa, with the midfield seeing the return of Inter Milan players Nicolo Barella and Stefano Sensi, after a coronavirus outbreak at their club side.
Despite Italy dominating early against the country they beat in the 1994 World Cup semi-finals, the visitors were pegged back by the Bulgarians. Yasen Petrov’s home side had conceded three goals in the first 13 minutes against the Swiss on Thursday, but were tougher against Italy.
Chiesa and Belotti were both unable to connect with crosses from Leonardo Spinazzola and Alessandro Florenzi. But the breakthrough came when Belotti went down under a Daniel Dimov challenge as he ran to connect with Lorenzo Insigne’s through ball.
“It was an important goal because we unlocked a difficult match,” said Belotti who slotted in his 11th goal in 32 international appearances. “We practised a few penalties before the game because our specialist Jorginho was not playing.”
Bulgaria had penalty appeals for a Stefano Sensi handball ruled out after 57 minutes. And Belotti missed a chance for a second midway through the second half with a lob hitting the post and sending the rebound over.
Locatelli came on for Stefano Sensi after 68 minutes, with Ciro Immobile replacing Belotti and Federico Bernardeschi in for Chiesa for the final quarter of an hour. Insigne teed up Locatelli to curl in the second with eight minutes to go.
“My first Italy goal, it’s incredible, I’ve still got goosebumps,” said the 23-year-old Sassuolo midfielder.
“It’s impossible to describe. I play football for this kind of emotion and I will always carry this with me.”
Italy claimed their first ever win in Bulgaria on their seventh attempt. Mancini extended his unbeaten run with Italy to 24 consecutive games, just behind former World Cup winning coaches Marcello Lippi (25) and Vittorio Pozzo (30). Italy next play Lithuania in Vilnius tomorrow.
They first come up against their main group rivals Switzerland in September. Bulgaria, who have not qualified for the World Cup since 1998, travel to Northern Ireland next week.
Meanwhile, a first-half goal by Serge Gnabry was enough to seal a tight 1-0 away win for Germany against Romania in their World Cup qualifier. Bayern Munich winger Gnabry has now scored 15 goals in just 19 appearances for the national team.
Germany out-muscled their hosts with 18 shots on goal, twice as many as the Romanians. However, the hosts finished stronger with clear chances in the dying stages. “We could have made it easier for ourselves,” admitted Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich. “We were lucky in the 90th minute that they didn’t equalise. We simply have to decide things earlier and give ourselves a calmer evening.”
The win leaves Germany top of Group J by just a single goal ahead of Armenia who also won their first two games. “If there’s anything to criticise, it’s the way we used our chances,” said Germany head coach Joachim Loew, who will step down after the Euro 2020 finals this summer.
Loew has targeted three straight wins from their opening 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Germans can complete the hat-trick of wins against North Macedonia in Duisburg tomorrow.
Having also raced into an early lead in Thursday’s 3-0 win over Iceland in Duisburg, Germany again wasted no time as the same team started against Romania. Antonio Rudiger put a ball over the defence to Chelsea teammate Kai Havertz who squared the ball for Gnabry to fire home on 16 minutes.
It was almost 2-0 four minutes later when Kimmich clattered the crossbar with a deflected shot from 25 metres.