Pio Esposito's Brace Ends Italy's 64-Year Wait to Beat France at Home

Ten minutes in at San Siro, Gianluigi Donnarumma rolled a pass out of his own area and put it straight onto a France shirt. Michael Olise took the gift, drove into the box and finished underneath the goalkeeper who had handed it to him. Italy were losing, at home, to the team they almost never beat at home.

By the end of the night, a 21-year-old Inter striker had scored twice. His older brother had missed a penalty. He had taken the next one himself, with a missed penalty of his own still sitting in his head, and Italy had beaten France in Milan for the first time since 1962.

The hole, and the way out

France looked like the side that had not lost since Zinedine Zidane took over in the summer. Désiré Doué fired into the side-netting early, Adrien Rabiot forced Donnarumma into a sharp save, and Olise's goal on 10 minutes felt like the start of a long evening. France finished with 65 percent of the ball and 18 shots. Bradley Barcola hit the post before half-time.

Italy answered against the run of it. Nicolò Cambiaghi beat Malo Gusto down the left and pulled the ball back across goal, and Francesco Pio Esposito got in front of Dayot Upamecano and flicked it past Mike Maignan at the near post. Twenty-six minutes, 1-1, and the game had a completely different shape — Cambiaghi, who kept running at Gusto all night, had made the goal out of the one duel Italy were winning.

Two penalties, two brothers

The Esposito brothers started together up front — the first brothers to play for Italy in the same side since 1910, per ESPN. On the hour, Gusto brought Cambiaghi down and Italy had a penalty. Sebastiano, the older brother, took it and blasted it wide.

He was substituted minutes later. Italy scored anyway, almost immediately: Federico Dimarco, just off the bench, pulled a low ball back for Davide Frattesi to finish from close range on 63 minutes. Then Upamecano fouled Antonio Vergara, and Italy had a second penalty, and this time Pio stepped up.

"On the penalty, there was an extra responsibility, which was to wipe out the error made by my brother," he told RAI Sport afterwards. "When I saw it go wide, that was tough for me as well as for him. I had to score and finish the game for him."

There was a second weight on it. The last penalty Pio Esposito took for Italy was in the World Cup play-off defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he missed that one too. "When I stepped up, my first thought inevitably was Bosnia, but I couldn't hide forever," he said. "You take penalties, you miss them, it happens, you've just got to keep going forward."

He drove it into the bottom-left corner. Maignan went the right way and still got nowhere near it. Three-one, 75 minutes, game finished.

The numbers reach back a long way

The brace was Esposito's first in an Italy shirt, and it takes him to nine goals in 14 senior caps at 21 years old. He is the first player to score at least eight times in his first 14 Italy appearances since Christian Vieri did it across 1997 and 1998. As La Gazzetta dello Sport noted in its coverage, nine goals is also Francesco Totti's entire career total for Italy — Esposito has matched it before turning 22.

The team numbers run deeper. Italy had not beaten France on home soil since 1962 — 64 years of waiting, ended on a night when France had more of the ball, more shots, and the lead. Giorgio Scalvini said Roberto Mancini had told the squad beforehand that this was "a game we'll remember when we are old."

Top of the group, one game left

Italy and France are level on 10 points, with Italy top of the group on the head-to-head record, and the Nations League quarter-final places settle on Sunday. Italy go to Belgium knowing avoiding defeat sends them through. France, beaten for the first time under Zidane, host Türkiye.

Two months ago Italy opened this group by losing 2-0 at home to Belgium, and looked like a side still being built. They finish the week on top of it, carried there by a 21-year-old who took a penalty his brother had just missed — and scored it for both of them. The match is on its Game Center page.