Stephan El Shaarawy ended a three-year drought by scoring the winning goal as Italy beat Azerbaijan, 3-1, Saturday to qualify for next year’s European Championship.
After Eder’s opener and an equalizer from Dmitri Nazarov, El Shaarawy finished off a counterattack in the 43rd for his first national team goal since November 2012. Manchester United’s Matteo Darmian added another for Italy in the second half.
Norway took a step toward qualifying for the tournament, which will be held in France, with a 2-0 win over Malta. Italy has 21 points in Group H, Norway is next with 19 and Croatia, which hosted Bulgaria later, is third with 14.