Six goals at the Arena, 110 years ago the first Italy

The hero of that first Italy, in a friendly against France ended 6-2, was Pietro Lana, born in 1888. It was May 15, 1910 and, in front of 'his' audience, the four thousand spectators arrived at the Civic Arena of Milan, the small and fast half-wing left, nicknamed 'Fantaccino', at 13 'made the first goal of the Italian national football team. And within 90 minutes the first hat-trick. Had he been born in England he would have taken the ball home.
    A character, this Lana. Passionate about mountaineering, he was also one of the 44 dissident members of Milan who founded Inter. Soon, however, he regretted it and returned with the Rossoneri.
    But that's another story ...
    The other scorers of the meeting were Virgilio Fossati (Inter), Giuseppe Rizzi (Ausonia) and Enrico Debernardi (Turin).
    All white uniform, shirt with starched collar, some players in black shorts, others white, the nascent 'Azzurri' (although they would become such only in January of the following year, during a game with Hungary) won that day the first of a long series of challenges that led to the conquest of four world and one European titles.
    In 2010 the Football Federation wanted to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the event with an exhibition organized right at the Arena in Milan. On this occasion, the copy of the World Cup raised by Fabio Cannavaro in Berlin was exhibited, along with shoes and balls of almost archaeological value and 30 shirts belonging to some of the champions who wrote the history of Italy.