✅ Good morning, my friends! Here are the front pages from the Italian newspapers La Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport, and Tutto Sport, Friday 31 May 2024.
La Gazzetta dello Sport, Front Page, Friday 31 May 2024
Front Page, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Friday 31 May
👉Gasp in Gazzetta
“My Dea always stronger”
“Atalanta, the Scudetto, Scamacca: I tell you all”
👉Inter see the defender for a renewal
Lautaro, say yes
Italy Head Coach Luciano Spalletti has announced his first squad as Azzurri Head Coach. Spalletti has called up 30 provisional players for this initial training camp. The team will meet up at the Federal Technical Centre in Coverciano on Friday 31 May to begin preparations for UEFA EURO 2024.
Spalletti will announce his final squad for the tournament on Thursday 6 June. There is a first call-up to the national team for Bologna defender Riccardo Calafiori, who in 2022 had taken part in the camps dedicated to players of national interest, and a second call-up for Juventus midfielder Nicolò Fagioli a year and a half after his first and only appearance in the Azzurri shirt in the friendly against Albania in November 2022. Raoul Bellanova (Torino) and Michael Folorunsho (Verona), already called up in March for the two friendlies in the United States against Venezuela and Ecuador., also get a second call-up. Torino midfielder Samuele Ricci and Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel return to the national team setup, having been out of the squad since November 2022 and November 2023, respectively.
Riccardo Calafiori, difensore del Bologna classe 2002
As reported by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), before leaving for Germany, scheduled for Monday 10 June, the national team will play two friendlies: on Tuesday 4 June against Türkiye (21:00 CEST at the stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna) and Sunday 9 June against Bosnia and Herzegovina (20:45 CEST at the stadio Carlo Castellani in Empoli). Following the game with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy will travel to Germany, where they will hold the last training sessions in Iserlohn before their opener against Albania, scheduled for Saturday 15 June in Dortmund.
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Italy SQUAD LIST
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Ivan Provedel (Lazio), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Torino), Alessandro Buongiorno (Torino), Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta);
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio).
TRAINING CAMP SCHEDULE from 31 May to 11 June 2024.
The national team will meet up on Friday 31 May at Coverciano and, following Luciano Spalletti’s press conference, will start their EURO 2024 preparations in the afternoon. A busy schedule will follow, with one training session per day, a dedicated media day,as well as time for some federation initiatives. Then, on Tuesday 4 June, the first friendly will take place in Bologna against Turkey, before returning to the Federal Technical Centre afterwards. The following day, a training match is scheduled with the Under-20 national team to also give those players not involved in the game against Türkiye 90 minutes.
At that point, the players will have a short break and the head coach will focus on his final selections for his squad for the European Championship, which will be officially announced on Thursday 6 June. The group of players called up will therefore return to Coverciano on Friday 7; the official photo session for the European Championship is scheduled for Saturday 8; the second friendly is on Sunday 9 in Empoli against Bosnia and Herzegovina before the final training session at the Federal Technical Centre and departure for Germany on Monday 10. In the evening, the Azzurri will arrive in Iserlohn, the town in the Rhineland that will host the team’s base camp during the European Championship, with the players and staff staying at the Hotel VierJahreszeiten.
The following day, Tuesday 11 June, the first training session at the local sports ground will be held, the Hemberg Stadion Nord, with a huge crowd expected to welcome the Azzurri (around 4,000 tickets have been distributed to the locals). This will be the only training session open to the public, while from 12 June entry will be reserved for media accredited to the European Championship. This will be followed by the opening of Casa Azzurri, a meeting point for fans, the media and sponsors, set up in a large area close to the Matthias Grothe Halle and inside the city sports hall itself. There will also be a player from the squad at the ribbon cutting. Immediately afterwards, there will be the first press conference in the Media Centre. From then on, daily training sessions and press conferences until the eve of the side’s EURO 2024 opener.
UEFA EURO 2024. The 17th edition of the European Championship will start on Friday 14 June in Munich (opening match Germany vs. Scotland). After the 2020 edition was hosted across Europe, postponed to 20021 due to Covid, we see the return to playing in just one country: Germany will host the tournament for the second time, 36 years after the first time in 1988, but only in West Germany, which would be reunited with the East two years later. The tournament will last 31 days, from 14 June to 14 July, with the final in Berlin. Italy are in Group B along with Spain, Croatia and Albania. The Azzurri kick off in Dortmund against Albania on Saturday 15 June before facing Spain in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday 20 and then Croatia in Leipzign on Monday 24 June. The top two in each group and the four best third-placed teams from the six groups will go through to the round of 16.
The UEFA EURO 2024 Draw was held on Saturday 2 December 2023 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. FIGC President Gabriele Gravina, General Secretary, Marco Brunelli, Head Coach Luciano Spalletti, and Head of Delegation Gianluigi Buffon all present. The draw revealed that Italy’s Group Stage will be Spain, Albania and Croatia. It was Buffon who kicked off the draw, bringing on stage the trophy lifted by Italy at Wembley in July 2021.
Saturday 15 June 2024: ITALY vs. Albania (Dortmund) Thursday 20 June 2024: ITALY vs. Spain (Gelsenkirchen) Monday 24 June 2024: ITALY vs. Croatia (Leipzig)
THE DRAW. Being put in pot 4, despite being current holders, Italy were drawn into Group B: the Azzurri were placed with Spain from pot 1, Albania from pot 2 and Croatia from pot 3. It is without doubt a difficult group, very similar to the one at Euro 2012: on that occasion the National team found Spain, Croatia, and the Republic of Ireland, finishing in second place and reaching the Final, where they were beaten by Spain. Italy will open up with Albania on 15 June in Dortmund; they will then play Spain in Gelsenkirchen on 20 June and finish off in Leipzig on 24 June against Croatia. The top two will go through to the Round of 16 stages, along with the four best third-placed teams.
Photo via figc.it/en
As reported by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Italy Head Coach Luciano Spalletti declared “It could have been better; it’s a tough group. Being in pot 4 means you have a lot of teams ahead of you, but nothing should take away the fact that we are Italy. We’ll go and take on Spain, otherwise there’s no joy in playing football; Croatia are an experienced and strong team, and Albania have shown they can play. Much will depend on what our physical condition is, from how we prepare and what we can develop. It’s currently too hard to make predictions, we’ll need to see how every team is once at the Euros”.
“We are relatively satisfied,” said FIGC President, Gravina. “Like in every draw, you hope to have the least tough group possible; it could have been worse. We are confident we can do well. I wouldn’t focus too much on our opponents’ strengths, which they have, because we have shown that when we put all our energies together there’s no team we can’t beat.” In Germany, the Azzurri will also be able to count on the support of the Italian community there: “The Italian fans are certainly our 12th man”, declared Gravina, reaffirming his congratulations to the Women’s team for their success yesterday over World Champions, Spain.
UEFA EURO 2024 GROUPS
GROUP A: Germany, Hungary, Scotland, Switzerland GROUP B: Spain, Albania, Croatia, ITALY GROUP C: England, Denmark, Slovenia, Serbia GROUP D: France, Austria, the Netherlands, winner of play-off A GROUP E: Belgium, Romania, Slovakia, winner of play-off B GROUP F: Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic, winner of play-off C
PREVIOUS MATCHES AGAINST SIDES IN THE GROUP. Italy vs. Spain is a classic of the football world. There have been 40 previous games in total, with 11 Azzurri wins, 16 draws, and 13 losses. The last time the sides met was in the Nations League semi-final in June which was won 2-1 by Spain, whilst in the Euro 2020 semi-final it was Italy who came out on top in the penalty shootout. If the Azzurri have always beaten Albania (4 wins in 4 games), Croatia is an entirely different beast: they have won only 1 of the 9 previous games against the side, a friendly in 1942. Since then, the tally sits at 3 defeats and 5 draws for the Azzurri, the most recent being a 1-1 in June 2015.
UPCOMING FIXTURES FOR THE AZZURRI. The Men’s National Team will play two friendlies in the international window in March (opponents TBC). The group will then reconvene between the end of May/beginning of June once club football has concluded both at a domestic (15 May Coppa Italia final, 26 May last matchday of Serie A) and European level (finals in the three major UEFA club competitions to be held between 19 May and 1 June). Ahead of knowing whether any Italian clubs will make it to a potential final, there are currently 19 days between the end of Serie A and the start of the Euros, during which the players will have the necessary break before a training camp in Italy with two friendlies. Then, it’ll be time to depart for Germany. This is the same timeframe as EURO 2020 (Serie A finished on 23 May and Italy played the opening game on 11 June, 19 days apart) and a far cry from the lengthy waits up until the 90s. The record wait between the end of the domestic season and the start of a summer international tournament was in 1994: 48 days wait until the World Cup in the USA. The final 23-man squad list will be announced seven days before the tournament starts at the latest.
VENUES AND DATES. EURO 2024 will start on 14 June with the opening game in Munich, which will involve hosts Germany. The official ball for the tournament is adidas’ Fußballliebe and the tournament’s mascot is Albärt. There are eleven host cities: Berlin (Olympiastadion / 70,000 capacity, final venue), Cologne (Cologne Stadium / 47,000), Dortmund (BVB Stadion Dortmund / 66,000), Dusseldorf (Düsseldorf Arena / 47,000), Frankfurt (Frankfurt Arena / 46,000), Gelsenkirchen (Arena AufSchalke / 50,000), Hamburg (Volksparkstadion / 50,000), Leipzig (Leipzig Stadium / 42,000), Munich (Munich Football Arena / 67,000, opening game venue), Stuttgart (Stuttgart Arena / 54,000).
The games in the six groups will take place at a varying number of venues (from four to six, but only two for Germany’s group), geographically divided into two areas: centre-north and centre-south. In detail: Group A is the one with the least amount of travel, in terms of number and distance, because it will take place between Cologne and Stuttgart (two cities in the centre-south separated by approximately 360 km), plus the opening match with Germany playing in Munich, the southernmost venue of the tournament. On the other hand, the areas in which the other groups will take place are wider: Groups B, D, and F will be concentrated in the cities of the centre-north (Hamburg, Berlin, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Gelsenkirchen) and there will be six different venues for the Group B matches, 5 for Group D, 4 for Group F. Group C and E games, on the other hand, will take place across five venues in the centre-south (Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart, plus Gelsenkirchen – Group C – and Dusseldorf – Group E).
✅ UEFA EURO 2024 GROUP CITIES
GROUP A: Cologne and Stuttgart (opening game in Munich) GROUP B: Hamburg, Berlin, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Gelsenkirchen, Leipzig, GROUP C: Cologne, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Munich, Stuttgart GROUP D: Hamburg, Berlin, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Leipzig GROUP E: Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart GROUP F: Hamburg, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Leipzig
✅ Good morning, my friends! Here are the front pages from the Italian newspapers La Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport, and Tutto Sport, Sunday 3 December 2023.
La Gazzetta dello Sport, Front Page, Sunday 3 December 2023
Front Page La Gazzetta dello Sport Sunday 3 December
👉Milan struck 3 times, goal and assist by Jovic
The Devil is alive
Frosinone overcome
👉Scudetto calls
Napoli, last chance
Inter to overtake again
✅ Good morning, my friends! Here are the front pages from the Italian newspapers La Gazzetta dello Sport, Corriere dello Sport, and Tutto Sport, Wednesday 22 November 2023.
La Gazzetta dello Sport, Front Page, Wednesday 22 November 2023
Front Page La Gazzetta dello Sport Wednesday 22 November 2023
👉Euro draw, we are in Pot 4
Azzurri at risk
👉Inter until 2028
Barella signed
👉Chiesa returned from international duty even more fired up
Now he must inspire Juve in the Scudetto challenge
By Anna Italia
