Coach Roberto Mancini expressed satisfaction that his squad had proven its strength in depth, with a side featuring eight changes beating Wales 1-0 in Rome on Sunday to put Italy in the last-16 of Euro 2020 with a perfect record of three wins out of three games in Group A.
Matteo Pessina's first half-goal extended the Azzurri's winning streak to 11 matches and enabled them to equal the unbeaten record achieved by Vittorio Pozzo's team, who avoided defeat for 30 consecutive matches and won two World Cups in the 1930s.
Italy will now face Ukraine or Austria at Wembley on Saturday 26 June.
"We couldn't have done better, although we could have scored more" said Mancini, whose team was already sure of making the knockout stage of the tournament before the Wales clash. " "The lads did really well. Even when we make changes, nothing should change: the players know what they have to do.
"We showed that everyone is a starter.
"There would have been a lot of new faces on the pitch even if the match had been a decisive one because we needed to give everyone playing time and bring in fresh energy.
"It's unfortunate when players miss out, but being able to count on everyone is important".
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