Three things learned from Italy’s 5-0 win over Estonia: Tonali, strikers, defence

Originally posted on Football Italia | By Lorenzo Bettoni | Last updated Sep 6, 2025 7:59 AM ET

Gennaro Gattuso’s convincing debut as the Italy head coach against Estonia proved that Moise Kean and Mateo Retegui can complement each other, while Sandro Tonali underlined his status as the best central midfielder in the country.

Italy secured a 5-0 win over Estonia on Gattuso’s debut as head coach: here are five things we learned from the game on Friday.

Strikers

It was the first time that Retegui and Kean played together, and the outcome was beyond impressive. The ex-Atalanta striker finished the game with nine total shots while Kean recorded five. Most importantly, Retegui scored two goals and provided one assist, resulting in the MOTM in Bergamo, where his former fans acclaimed him. Clearly, Estonia are far from being close to the best teams on the continent, yet Gattuso’s attacking playing style suited the Azzurri well, in a game which the Azzurri had to win, scoring as many goals as possible. Predictably, Gattuso will pick two centre forwards again in some of the next games, but it would not be surprising to see him choose an extra central midfielder in the upcoming meeting with Israel, another must-win for the Azzurri, who currently sit third in Group I.

Tonali

An all-round performance for the Newcastle midfielder who made five key passes, had a 91% passing accuracy and won five ground duels from six (via Sofascore). A year on from his return to action, the former Milan star is now stamping his authority as the best midfielder in the country. Against Estonia, where he lined up alongside Inter’s Nicolò Barella, Tonali looked the sharper of the two. Barella delivered a solid display, but couldn’t catch the quality, stamina and resilience shown by the Newcastle man. Tonali can either play as a Regista or a box-to-box midfielder for the Azzurri, as his quality on the ball is currently unrivalled in Italian football.

Defence

Gattuso already said it in his first press conference during the international break, so seeing Italy line up with a four-man defence wasn’t really surprising. However, Riccardo Calafiori played on the left-hand side of the central defence, and while the Arsenal defender’s forward runs contributed to pushing Estonia inside their own half, Bastoni’s long-range passes sometimes caught the Azzurri opponents off-guard, giving Gattuso two more extra options in the build-up when the middle of the park was too crowded. With Alessandro Buongiorno not even called up because of his fitness and Giovanni Leoni watching from the stands, it’s fair to say that the Azzurri have enough depth – and quality – in their ranks and working alongside Gattuso’s assistant Leonardo Bonucci will only benefit the Italy defenders, particularly in terms of composure and distribution on the ball.

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

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