Italy failed to hit top gear but emerged from their clash in Armenia with a 3-1 victory in Group B.
Italy took the lead with an early Andrea Pirlo penalty after Hrayr Mkoyan had handballed, but thehosts were level on 27 minutes through Henrikh Mkhitarian.
It took a Daniele De Rossi header on 64 minutes to restore the Azzurri's lead and the Roma midfielder crossed for club team-mate Pablo Osvaldo to round off the scoring with ten minutes remaining.
Kudos to Italy for their hardwork and defending abilitites. They have good professional players too