Italy have ended their World Cup qualifying campaign with a slender 1-0 win over Albania thanks to Antonio Candreva's second-half strike.
The Azzurri had already nabbed a playoff spot ahead of this evening's encounter, but had no way of challenging Group G leaders Spain.
As expected, Gian Piero Ventura's side began the stronger of the two, with Ciro Immobile coming close to putting the Italians ahead when he fired a close-range shot at Etrit Berisha, but the goalkeeper saved.
At the other end, Albania had an opportunity to strike through Armando Sadiku, whose attempt from the edge of the danger area was denied by Gianluigi Buffon, who stretched to his left to keep the ball out.
It was frustrating for Italy in large chunks of the game as their opponents managed to keep them contained, despite their efforts in the final third.
Immobile was involved again when he made his way into the box before unleashing a powerful shot, which smashed against the crossbar.
It was a slow start after the break, but Italy began knocking on the door, with Candreva getting a bit of joy when he found space on the right side of the area to hit a shot at goal, but the ball fell wide.
Lorenzo Insigne showed decent skill by dodging two defenders before directing the ball towards the bottom left corner, only for the ball to be stopped by Berisha.
The deadlock was eventually broken when Candreva got on the end of Leonardo Spinazzola's cross into the box and sent the ball into the roof of the net.
There was not a huge amount of threat from Albania as the match drew to a close, and the team end the qualifying campaign third in the standings.
Danielle Joynson
