Pio Esposito's late goal sealed a hard-earned win over Türkiye in Bologna and continued Italy's improvement under returning head coach Roberto Mancini.

The hosts survived some tough moments to secure a 3-1 win and a quickfire double over their opponents, boosting their chances of a place in the Nations League quarterfinals.

Mancini's men went into the game after a creditable draw with France and a thumping 4-1 win over the Turks in Bursa last month, but they found the going tougher on home turf.

Italy started well against their opponents, who went into the game still searching for their point in the group, and Gianluca Scamacca fired the first chance just wide of target in the 11th minute.

Irfan Kahveci served a timely reminder that his side were intent on breaking their duck when he burst onto a clever through-ball moments later, but lost control when he could have been clean through on keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Türkiye kept coming forward, and Ozan Kabak was next to come close to breaking the deadlock when his shot from the edge of the box was pushed out for a corner by Donnarumma.

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The veteran keeper also saved well from Salih Özcan before Italy snatched their first real opportunity to go in front four minutes before the half-hour mark.

Antonio Vergara and Giovanni De Lorenzo combined well before Vergara fired a cross that took a deflection and fell nicely for Scamacca to ram it home off the underside of the bar.

Italy looked more settled having made their breakthrough and sat comfortably on their lead until just before the hour mark, when Issa Doumbia was denied his side's second by a strong save from Türkiye keeper Ugurcan Çakir.

Türkiye grabbed their chance to score a shock equaliser four minutes later when the ball flicked off Eren Elmali into the path of Aral Simsir, who had the simplest of chances to poke home from point-blank range.

Mancini's men regrouped and regained their lead within four minutes after Nicolò Barella delivered a free kick from the right that was met by the rising Riccardo Calafiori who headed past Cakir.

Donnarumma did well to preserve Italy's hard-earned advantage in the 77th minute when he tipped away a drive from Ozcan, who had been played through by a pinpoint cross from Yunus Akgün.

Esposito finally wrapped up the win in the 88th minute after Doumbia drove brilliantly into the box, his shot bouncing clear then being fed back in by Romano for the Inter man to pounce and steer home.