Under-21 first stumbles, then fights back: Montenegro defeated in European Championship qualifier
The National Under-21 team gets back on track after the defeat in the final in Poland last Friday: at the Stadion Gradski in Niksic, the Azzurrini led by head coach Silvio Baldini beat Montenegro 4-1, consolidating their second position in Group E of the 2027 European Championship qualifiers and remaining three points behind Poland, victorious 1-0 in North Macedonia.
Italy, however, found itself forced to come back from a goal disadvantage, the one scored by Balsa Mrvaljevic at 37′: the reaction to the goal was immediate and led to Niccolò Pisilli’s equalizer at 42′ while in the second half there was no match and three more goals arrived, scored by Matteo Dagasso at 60′, Francesco Camarda at 64′ and Seydou Fini at 74′.
After six days, therefore, Poland remains ahead of all in the grouping with 18 points, Italy follows at 15, Montenegro and Sweden share the third position with 9 points, North Macedonia is second-to-last at 3 and Armenia, beaten precisely by Sweden 1-0, remains at the tail end with 0 points.
There are four matches left in the qualifying round: Italy will face North Macedonia at home and Sweden away in March, while in October 2026 it will close the schedule by first facing Armenia at the latter’s home and then Poland at home. The first-place finishers and the best runner-up from the nine groups advance to the final round, for the other eight there will be playoffs.
