Italy was humiliated 5-2 by Germany in the Nations League, as Roberto Mancini's experiments finally caught up with him. They made nine changes from the 0-0 draw with England, with only Davide Frattesi and Gianluigi Donnarumma remaining. With five points, the Azzurri led the group, while Die Mannschaft had drawn all three of their games thus far.
Because Marco Rossi's Hungary won a shock 4-0 victory away from rock bottom England, this result drops them from first to third. As a Matteo Politano cross wrecked havoc, Manuel Neuer needed to make a frantic double save with his legs on Giacomo Raspadori and the Willy Gnonto follow-up.
Germany seized the lead when Joshua Kimmich sprinted through the middle of the field unmarked to latch onto a David Raum cross from the left, giving him time and space to control and beat Gigio Donnarumma from 10 yards. After a free kick, Bryan Cristante's looping header was just over, and Raspadori almost pounced on a weak Sule back-pass, but Donnarumma needed a superb save to deny Hofmann with his angled drive after a wonderful passing move.
Sane's shot was straight at Donnarumma, who subsequently had to make a far more difficult save on Werner in the near top corner. With only 34% possession and enormous defensive gaps, Italy's tactical situation was dire, so Roberto Mancini replaced Politano with Luiz Felipe Ramos and switched to a three-man defence. The Lazio defender was making his international debut.
Bastoni gave up a penalty with a horrible push on Hofmann, so the tactical change didn't help right away. Germany went into the halftime break with a 2-0 lead thanks to Ilkay Gundogan's penalty kick into the roof of the net. Giorgio Scalvini of Atalanta and Gianluca Caprari of Verona both made their senior Italy debuts. In the first five minutes, the Azzurri were significantly more adventurous, with Bryan Cristante and a Scalvini header both going wide.
Bastoni's nightmare continued as Spinazzola only managed to clear a low cross as far as Thomas Muller, who shot in from 12 yards. Neuer made a spectacular stop from close range on Barella, but the Inter midfielder was already offside on Caprari's through ball. Even though Werner scuffed straight at Donnarumma and Caprari missed the acrobatic volley, Germany added a fourth goal when Federico Dimarco kept Serge Gnabry onside with a cushioned knock-back that even Werner couldn't miss from close range.
Donnarumma made a mess of his clearance on a Bastoni back-pass moments later, and Gnabry pounced to set up another Werner tap-in. It was the first time Italy has allowed five goals against Yugoslavia since May 1957. Italy got a consolation goal through Wilfried Gnonto, who was waiting on the rebound after Dimarco's angled shot was just parried by Neuer.
Several pitch invaders got away from the fairly poor stewards in the last minutes, while Anton Stach missed a sixth goal by inches in stoppages. With a fantastic, curving strike that Neuer acrobatically palmed out of the far top corner, Dimarco almost made it 5-2. Bastoni got the goal in the end, with a near-post header from Dimarco's corner.