Stefano Sensi struck after the break with captain Ciro Immobile adding a second from the penalty spot late to maintain Italy's perfect start to their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 2-0 Group C win in Lithuania on Wednesday. The four-time world champions missed out on the World Cup finals in 2018, but made it three wins from three after beating Northern Ireland and Bulgaria, both with a 2-0 scoreline. And Roberto Mancini extended their unbeaten run to 25 consecutive games to match 2006 World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi's run without defeat. Both are five short of two-time World Cup winner Vittorio Pozzo's record mark of 30. 

"Honestly, the only thing I would like is to match Lippi in December 2022 (in the World Cup)," said Mancini, 56, who took over in May 2018. "We can be happy to be on top of the group. For us the glass is half full," continued Mancini. "It's the third match in seven days, even if we rotated the squad we knew it would be difficult. "We had to take into account the physical condition of the players who were very tired and the (artificial) surface which we knew would be difficult. "The important thing was to win, even if it's certain that if we had finished off all the chances, we would have suffered less." Immobile wore the captain's armband for the injury-hit Italians, starting up front alongside Stephan El Shaarawy and Federico Bernardeschi.