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FourFourTwo
Sport
Steven Chicken

WATCH: Italy stunned as Albania score record-breaking 23-second goal at Euro 2024

Nedim Bajrami celebrates scoring after 23 seconds for Albania against Italy at Euro 2024.

Italy were stunned on Saturday as Albania took the lead against the defending European champions with a record-shattering goal just 23 seconds into the teams' Group B clash at Euro 2024.

Nedim Bajrami smashed the ball into the top corner to record the fastest-ever goal at a European Championships final after capitalising on a blunder by Inter left-back Federico Dimarco.

Albania had kicked off the game and pumped the ball into the corner to give Italy a throw-in, which Dimarco threw into his own penalty box looking for a teammate unaware that the Sassuolo teammate was lurking and ready to capitalise.

Euro 2024: Previous winners

The Albanian’s strike gave Gianluigi Donnarumma no chance of making a save and got the deeply unfancied side off to an absolute dream start.

Albania are playing in only their second-ever major tournament finals having previously exited at the group stage of Euro 2016, missing out on going through as one of the best third-placed teams.

Italy would have hoped for a far better kick-off to proceedings after surprisingly failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. The Azzurri beat England at Wembley in the final of Euro 2020 on a penalty shootout, and were slightly stuttering in their qualification campaign for this summer.

Italy equalised after 11 minutes through Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella put the Azzurri in front just five minutes later.

Earlier on Saturday, Spain beat Croatia 3-0 in the other Group B clash in Germany.

More Euro 2024 stories

We have a guide on how to get Euro 2024 tickets if you're still looking to go to the tournament. Can’t make it out there? Don’t worry: here’s how to watch Euro 2024 live streams from anywhere in the world

Plus: a more detailed look at what Scotland need to book passage to their first-ever knockout game

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