After watching his side rack up nine goals in his first two matches, Gattuso’s free-scoring charges required just five minutes to open the scoring in Tallinn. Fiorentina’s Moise Kean drove into the box, produced a stepover, and neatly worked the ball onto his right foot to fire into the far corner.
Unfortunately for Kean, the joy of netting his sixth goal in his last four international outings was cut short around 10 minutes later, when he limped off with an injury that will concern Gattuso and Fiorentina boss Stefano Pioli.
In Kean’s absence, Italy were presented with the chance to double their advantage from the penalty spot after Marten Kuusk clumsily brought down Mateo Retegui in the box. However, Estonia goalkeeper Karl Hein made amends for his teammate’s error, diving low to his left to push Retegui’s penalty onto the post to the delight of the home support.
As it proved, Retegui soon atoned for his penalty miss in the closing stages of the first period, sweeping the ball in from Riccardo Orsolini’s layoff to press home the visitors’ dominance before the break.
The former Atalanta forward threatened to add to his and Italy’s tally after the restart, rifling a fierce shot over the bar, shortly before Giacomo Raspadori was thwarted by the impressive Hein.
However, Hein’s defiance only prolonged the inevitable third Italian goal, which duly arrived in slick fashion with just over 15 minutes to play. Leonardo Spinazzola exchanged a one-two with Nicolo Barella to race behind the Estonia defence, fizzing the ball across for Francesco Pio Esposito to drive home his first international goal.
Despite wrapping up maximum points, Italy would have been disappointed to miss out on a clean sheet after Gianluigi Donnarumma dropped a routine cross at the feet of Rauno Sappinen, who gratefully tapped in to end Estonia’s three-game goal drought.
Italy will now turn their focus to a home game against Israel as they continue their bid to reach the World Cup for the first time since 2014.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Riccardo Orsolini (Italy)