The 2016 UEFA European Championship began for Italy on Monday with a marquee tilt against Belgium.

The Belgians came into the game as one of the hot favorites in the tournament.  They spent a good portion of 2016 at the top of the FIFA world rankings and came to the tournament ranked No. 2—the highest ranking of any team in the finals.

The Azzurri arrived at the sparkling new Stade de Lyon the clear underdogs, but they had a nasty surprise in store for the Belgians.  Their elite, Juventus-based defense throttled the Red Devils’ high-octane attack before hitting them with long passes and strong counterattacks that ripped apart Belgium’s injury-depleted back line.

The result was a convincing 2-0 victory—their first in a Euro opener since 2000—that puts them in excellent position to advance and, if things go right over the next two weeks, to potentially make a deep run in the tournament.

The credit for this win has to go to Antonio Conte.  The former Juventus boss has been heavily criticized in the run-up to the tournament for his squad selection and for falling back on the 3-5-2 that he was wedded to at Juve.  

However, Conte‘s vision—that of a team that may not be made up of the sparkliest parts but runs like a well-oiled machine—has proved itself, at least for now.

When these two teams met each other in November, Conte mostly bested his counterpart, Marc Wilmots, in terms of tactics.  On Monday, he comprehensively outcoached him.

Conte was initially expected to use Stephan El Shaarawy as the left wing-back in the 3-5-2, but opted for Matteo Darmian instead.  But it was the tactics, not the players, that ended up causing the Belgian defense problems.  

Conte pushed both Darmian and right wing-back Antonio Candreva high and very wide, forcing Belgium’s makeshift full-backs, Laurent Ciman and Jan Vertonghen, to the sidelines to cover them.

That produced ready-made channels in the back four that the Azzurri could exploit.  They signaled their intent about eight minutes in, when Eder released Darmian down the left side.  The 26-year-old cut inside into a fantastic position, but he ended up caught in two minds between passing and shooting and eventually lost the ball.

That was the case in many Italian moves for the first 25 minutes or so.  They managed to get into dangerous positions but often waited too long to made their final decision.

In the meantime, the so-called Juventus block—the back three of Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon—was suffocating Belgium’s attack.  

An easily saved 10th-minute strike from long range by Radja Nainggolan was the only direct challenge to Buffon, and the back three were constantly in position to intercept any attempt to pass the ball into the box.

The biggest problem in those early phases was Emanuele Giaccherini.  One of the more controversial selections in the final squad, Conte‘s old Juve acolyte repeatedly made mistakes in possession, giving the ball away and making totally ineffective crossing attempts.  For the first half hour, he looked like he was destined to be yanked off at halftime.

That is, until the 32nd minute.

That’s when Giaccherini took advantage of a miscommunication between Ciman and Toby Alderweireld, slipping through and latching onto a magnificent long pass from Bonucci.  Rather than take the ball forward with his first touch, he simply deadened it, leaving goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois too far away to get off his line and smother the ball.  A simple tap was all it took to give Italy the lead.

Four minutes later, Graziano Pelle nearly doubled the lead when Marco Parolo was first to a second ball on a corner and set him up with a header.  The Southampton forward’s own headed effort flew just wide of the post.

The second half was much like the first.  The Belgians looked better, and the occasional opening sprung up, like in the 53rd minute when Romelu Lukaku managed to get behind the defense and evade a charging Buffon only to barely miss the upper far corner.

But for much of the half Belgium failed to create real danger.  Chiellini totally marked the Everton striker out of the game, keeping him from taking a shot in the first half and limiting him, according to WhoScored.com, to two total shots in the game.

Once Lukaku was withdrawn for Divock Origi, the Belgians began to create some real danger.  The Liverpool man narrowly missed with a header off a cross from Kevin De Bruyne with eight minutes left, and any touch on a loose ball in the 88th minute could have equalized.

But the Italians held firm, and continued to search for a second goal.  Courtois made a one-handed save on a Pelle header in the 54th minute and did the same to substitute Ciro Immobile’s cannon shot seven minutes from time.  

The search came to fruition in the final seconds, when Immobile slipped Candreva through on the counter, and Pelle emphatically volleyed home the Lazio man’s cross.

Italy played as the ultimate team in this game.  It was telling that whenever an Azzurri player became hemmed in in possession, multiple white shirts appeared in the vicinity, allowing the initiation of quick passing moves that helped keep possession.  Moves were chased down, passing lanes were closed.  It seemed as if they moved as one.

Not only were Conte‘s on-field tactics spot on, but some of his most controversial selections had good games.  Giaccherini‘s game picked up immediately after his goal, chasing down Belgian breaks from behind and keeping possession in the defensive third with an acrobatic headed pass to Mattia De Sciglio.

Less obvious but just as important was Eder.  The Brazilian-born forward’s inclusion in the team produced wild derision.  He had been toward the top of the scoring charts at Christmas but only scored once after moving to Inter Milan in January.  Besides his lack of form, the general suspicion of oriundi—foreign-born players—also clouded his inclusion.

Eder didn’t come close to scoring, but he did play a good game.  Several times he reached a leg around a defender to poke the ball to a teammate, and when not in possession he made a good defensive contribution.  It was a good shift for the embattled forward, who rewarded Conte‘s confidence with solid performance.

In his post-match press conference, Conte praised his team’s play.  “When there is this kind of unity,” he told reporters (h/t Football Italia), “we can do great things.”  The team certainly wasn’t perfect.  Several players made horrid passing mistakes that set up dangerous Belgian breakaways, and four Italians received yellow cards, including Bonucci and Chiellini.

But at the end of the day, this game will go down as a shining achievement for Conte and the Azzurri.  Coming into the tournament with the look of a fallen giant, Italy showed the rest of Europe that they aren’t ready to be written off.  There is still work to do, and the remaining games against Sweden and the Republic of Ireland each have their challenges.

But Monday planted a glimmer of hope that a deep run in this tournament could be possible.  If Conte continues to have days like this one, perhaps his team will have more say over who becomes European champion than anyone thought they would.

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