After losing 3-1 to France at San Siro (thanks to a brace from Adrien Rabiot), Italy lost first place in their Nations League group and demonstrated they have a major issue with dealing with set plays.

With a single point, the Azzurri would have won their group and secured the first seed in the draw, even though both teams had already advanced to the quarterfinals. Even if France loses by just one goal, they are tied on points in the head-to-head matchup thanks to their same number of goals, and their overall goal differential is better.

After Thursday’s 1-0 victory in Belgium, Gianluigi Donnarumma was out with a stomach ailment, Riccardo Calafiori and Lorenzo Pellegrini were injured, and the only alteration to the outfield players was Manuel Locatelli replacing Nicolò Rovella. Eduardo Camavinga was benched, Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembele, Aurelien Tchaouameni, and Wesley Fofana were all out for Les Bleus. Theo Hernandez was also only fit to play on the bench.Despite Federico Dimarco’s best effort to clear the ball off the goal line, it only took 119 seconds for former Juventus midfielder Rabiot to head in a corner from Lucas Digne and break the deadlock. It was a rematch of the September match in Paris, when Italy rallied from a goal behind to defeat France 3-1.

From just beyond the penalty area, Barella tried to test Mike Maignan, but Les Bleus took the lead for good when a free kick by Digne sailed over the wall, ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar, and in off Vicario’s back.

Italy regained the lead a few minutes later when Andrea Cambiaso scored off a cross from the by-line after Federico Dimarco and Sandro Tonali had exchanged passes down the left. Cambiaso used the inside of his left boot to volley the ball in from nine yards out.

Within his own penalty area, Marcus Thuram robbed Cambiaso, but Giovanni Di Lorenzo charged down the effort, and Vicario made a diving save from a long-range shot by Christopher Nkunku.

Manuel Locatelli and Dimarco both had good opportunities from the edge of the box, but their half-volleys went wide.

France instead scored again from a set piece when Digne floated a free kick into the penalty area. Rabiot was far more forceful than Locatelli and headed the ball over Vicario, who was caught off his line by the goalie. It was Italy’s sixth consecutive set-play goal allowed.

Shortly after, Cambiaso missed the target with a screamer from outside the box, and Moise Kean, who had been defending William Saliba, was unable to gather a rolled-over pass from Dimarco.

At the death, Rovella shot long and straight at Maignan, and in stoppage time, Saliba blocked an effort by Alessandro Bastoni.

To preserve that two-goal advantage, Maignan produced his one significant stoppage-time save by parrying Kean’s shot from 10 yards out at the near post.