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Defending champions Italy recover from disastrous start to win Euro 2024 opener

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Federico Chiesa of Itaky in action against Albania.[AFP]

Italy recovered from conceding the fastest goal in the competition's history to get their defence of the European Championship title off to a winning start on Saturday as they came back to beat Albania 2-1 in front of a partisan crowd.

Nedim Bajrami stunned the Italians and delighted a huge Albanian support in Dortmund as he smashed in the opener after just 23 seconds, his strike pulverising the previous record for the quickest goal at the Euros of 67 seconds by Dmitri Kirichenko of Russia in 2004.

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