Pio and Sebastiano Esposito start together for Italy

Francesco Pio Esposito scored in Italy's 4-1 win away to Türkiye on Monday, and said afterwards the goal carried a family dedication that went beyond his brother Sebastiano's first senior cap.

"I want to dedicate the goal to my grandmother, who is not going through a good time, and I really wanted to score for her," Pio Esposito told RAI Sport.

It is the same grandmother of Sebastiano, who started alongside his younger brother in Bursa. The last time two Esposito-generation moments came close was in 2000, when Simone and Filippo Inzaghi overlapped on the pitch for 11 minutes against England — the fourth occasion in total that brothers have appeared together for the Nazionale. A third Esposito brother, Salvatore of Sampdoria, was capped in 2023.

The performance was a reversal from the side beaten 2-0 at home by Belgium: eight changes and a different look from the start, with Italy 3-0 up inside the first half through Alessandro Bastoni, Davide Frattesi and Michael Kayode. Baris Alper Yilmaz pulled one back for the hosts straight after the restart, before Pio Esposito headed in the rebound from Sandro Tonali's shot off the post to make it 4-1. Frattesi, who has been with Italy since March, and Kayode, on his debut, both got on the scoresheet; Tonali, now at Tottenham since the summer, set up the fourth.

"I remember my first time for the senior Italy side, as it was only last year, so I tried not to add any more pressure onto his shoulders. I hope he enjoyed it," said Pio. "It was wonderful sharing this experience with him and I hope to do so many more times."

Kayode and Matteo Ruggeri also made their debuts. "We felt a lot of enthusiasm, the kind you must always have when wearing this shirt. Football doesn't always go the way we want, but we must always have this attitude," Pio Esposito added. "Today we really enjoyed our football and I think you could tell."

The goal in Bursa was his sixth in 11 senior appearances for Italy, a strike rate that, by all accounts, put him second only to Giuseppe Meazza among the players to have reached that mark. Sebastiano, on loan at Sassuolo this season, joined a side sitting 10th in Serie A after five rounds.

We also covered Belgium's 0-1 home defeat to France, in which our prediction had backed the hosts to win.