The great Italian teams were not able for defenders who made huge contributions.
The class of 2015 scarcely seem a vintage Italy side but, as Italy booked their passage to France, it seemed fitting that the strike which calmed their nerves came from a supposed stopper.
Matteo Darmian drilled in their third goal and defenders have seemed their best form of attack at times in an unbeaten, but underwhelming, qualifying campaign.
Giorgio Chiellini is their two-goal joint top-scorer. Leonardo Bonucci wrapped up the opening 2-0 win in Norway.
Since then Italy have not made anything remotely resembling a statement of intent, and the Euro 2012 runners-up failed to impress again in Baku as they sealed their place in Euro 2016.
Then again, they can be a tournament team whose triumphs, particularly in 1982 World Cup, have come with barely a hint of a warning.
Perhaps, therefore, they are lulling everyone into a false sense of security again.
They are ranked 17th in the world rankings, their lowest ever position.
They have only scored 14 goals in qualifying which, to put it another way, is only two more than Robert Lewandowski has managed on his own.
Poland have a world-class striker. Italy do not, as the temperamental failings of the Euro 2012 strike force of Antonio Cassano and Mario Balotelli mean neither has realised his considerable potential.
Instead, manager Antonio Conte perms from a large cast of contenders, but some have precious little pedigree at this level.
His attackers delivered against Azerbaijan, with two scoring, but then the Azeris, who had Badavi Guseynov sent off, have only beaten Malta.
Eder finished coolly after Marco Verratti found him with a lovely pass. Then, after Dimitrij Nazarov levelled, Antonio Candreva presented Stephan El Shaarawy with an open goal. The Monaco man, who started on the left flank, did not pass the chance up.
It was a second goal for Italy for each. It meant the six forwards in Conte’s squad can now boast 15 international goals.
Both scorers reflect other trends: El Shaarawy has been loaned out by AC Milan while Eder was born in Brazil.
The great-grandson of an Italian, the Sampdoria striker is part of an old tradition. He is the 41st Oriundi – players from South America of Italian heritage – who were naturalised to play for the Azzurri.
His presence reflected on the failings of homegrown attackers although Graziano Pelle led the line with a craftsman’s cleverness. Yet the fact the Southampton striker’s international debut was delayed until he was 29 is telling.
The late bloomer is much improved but still seems a poor man’s Christian Vieri or Luca Toni. Against the Azeris, Pelle proved a fine foil to the quicker Eder, who would have had a brace but for a goal-line clearance from Rashad Sadygov.
Yet the classic Italian teams had no need for a speedy second striker. They had creative classicists.
Now the supply line of great Italian No 10s seems to have ended. Francesco Totti, scorer of 300 Roma goals but in his 40th year, is the last in a distinguished line.
The days when Italy could omit a “fantasista” of the calibre of Gianfranco Zola from a World Cup squad, as they did in 1998, seem distant. That side reached the quarter-finals in France.
Now Conte’s task is to take a team with less firepower further.
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