Euro 2020 is finally under way, and Italy are back, and nature is healing. On a taut and muggy night in Rome, a crowd of 16,000 were treated to a vivid display of smart, patient attacking football: a statement performance that instantly marks Roberto Mancini’s side out as one of the favourites for the tournament. And yet perhaps the symbolism of the occasion was greater still. Three decades after Italy last hosted a major tournament, five years after they last competed in one, 15 months after this fixture was postponed in the most disorienting and dreadful of circumstances, this felt like a sort of rebirth: a celebration of sport
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