Learn Italian: Se la squadra fosse più precisa, avrebbe superato il record. - If the team were more precise, they would have beaten the record.

This is a mixed conditional. The condition of the team being precise is a general, ongoing characteristic in the present, so we use the imperfect subjunctive (fosse). The result, however, already happened in the past, so we use the past conditional (avrebbe superato).

The English translation says 'they would have beaten', but the Italian uses the singular avrebbe. Why?

In Italian, squadra (team) is a collective noun and is strictly grammatically singular. Therefore, the verb must be in the third-person singular (avrebbe superato). In English, collective nouns like 'team' are often treated as plural ('they'), which can lead to mistakes if translated word-for-word.

Why is the adjective precisa ending in -a?

Precisa modifies la squadra, which is a feminine singular noun. Even though a team is made up of many people, the grammatical agreement strictly follows the noun itself, not the people in it.

Why doesn't the past participle superato change to agree with the feminine singular subject (la squadra)?