USA TODAY International Edition
ITALY BLANKS BELGIUM; SWEDEN, IRELAND DRAW
Goals from Emanuele Giaccherini and Graziano Pelle combined with excellent defending helped Italy earn a 2- 0 victory against Belgium in their first match in the European Championship on Monday in Lyon, France. Described as one of the worst Italian teams ever by news media outlets in the country, Antonio Conte’s aging squad defied the odds to take the lead in Group E with an impressive team effort.
uIreland opened its Euro campaign with a 1- 1 draw against Sweden in Group E’s other game.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the star who calls himself a legend, saved Sweden again. Even if he couldn’t get a goal and set a European Championship scoring record, the 34- year- old helped rescue a tie after being stifled by Ireland for most of the match. Sweden trailed until the 71st minute, when Ibrahimovic glid- ed forward and sent a ball across the goal mouth that Ireland defender Ciaran Clark stooped to head into his own net.
uThere was a minute’s silence in all Euro fan zones Monday to honor the 49 people killed at an Orlando nightclub. The Paris town hall press office said in a statement that the moment of silence was a mark of support for the victims, their relatives and the American people.
uA Marseille court convicted six English soccer fans Monday and handed down prison sentences ranging from one to three months to five of them for involvement in rioting in the European Championship. At the same court, a French man was sentenced to a year in prison and an Austrian was given a five- month prison term, also for involvement in the three days of rioting that left the streets of Marseille littered with broken glass and furniture ripped from terraces. One English man was given a suspended one- month sentence, and all the foreigners were banned from France for two years.