Paris: Italy needed a late winner from Marco Verratti to defeat a determined Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1 in Euro 2020 qualifying Wednesday, while Germany and France piled up the goals in lopsided victories.
Edin Dzeko fired Bosnia in front in Turin, but Lorenzo Insigne equalised shortly after half-time and Verratti curled home on 86 minutes to earn a fourth win in as many attempts for Roberto Mancini’s side in Group J.
“I expected the difficulties, but we showed the strength and the conviction to overturn it,” said Mancini.
“The important thing is that we are first in the group,” he added.
World champions France rebounded from last weekend’s defeat in Turkey with a trouble-free 4-0 win away to minnows Andorra.
“We reacted well after not playing to our usual level on Saturday against a good Turkey team. It looked easy today and the intensity wasn't the same but we played really well,” said France coach Didier Deschamps.
He retained just four of those who began Saturday’s 2-0 loss in Konya, handing first international starts to Kurt Zouma, Clement Lenglet and Leo Dubois.
Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring with a chipped finish on 11 minutes, with Wissam Ben Yedder and Florian Thauvin adding to their lead in the first half.
Zouma bundled home a fourth on the hour as France reclaimed top spot in Group H after Iceland beat Turkey 2-1 in Reykjavik.
Germany made light work of Estonia as Serge Gnabry and Marco Reus fired them to a thundering 8-0 victory in Mainz.
Gnabry and Reus scored two goals each, with Leon Goretzka, Ilkay Gundogan, Timo Werner and Leroy Sane also on target for Germany.
