By Anna Italia
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Italian Soccer Serie A
Italy Head Coach Luciano Spalletti has announced his first squad as Azzurri Head Coach. Spalletti has called up 29 players for the two upcoming EURO 2024 qualifying games against North Macedonia (9 September in Skopje) and Ukraine (12 September in Milan). The group will meet up at Coverciano on Sunday 3 September at Coverciano, where they will stay and train until Friday 8, before flying off to Skopje in that afternoon. Following the game with North Macedonia, the Azzurri will move on to Milan to prepare for the fixture with Ukraine.
The first call-up is Lazio defender Nicolò Casale, who was part of the two special training camps for players of national interest organized in 2022. Back wearing the Azzurri shirt are Mattia Zaccagni (absent since March 2022), Cristiano Biraghi, Gianluca Mancini and Manuel Locatelli (last call-up in June 2022).
🏆👉 Italy SQUAD LIST
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Ivan Provedel (Lazio), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Cristiano Biraghi (Fiorentina), Nicolò Casale (Lazio), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Gianluca Mancini (Roma), Alessio Romagnoli (Lazio), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Monza), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle);
Forwards: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio), Nicolò Zaniolo (Aston Villa).
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Photo via twitter.com/Azzurri_En
PREVIOUS MEETINGS
NORTH MACEDONIA VS. ITALY. Italy return to Skopje seven years after their first-ever meeting (2016), which is the Azzurri’s only victory over North Macedonia (fighting back to win through an Immobile brace and one from Belotti) in three fixtures (one draw and one defeat in the two home games). This will be the first game in the European qualification stages, after three previous meetings during World Cup qualifying.
When Italy have faced North Macedonia, it has always missed out on Finals: in 2018, the Azzurri finished second behind Spain and ended up loding to Sweden in the playoffs; in 2022, it was North Macedonia who knocked out Italy in the first play-off round in Palermo, through Trajkovski’s goal at the death, before losing themselves to Portugal in the final playoff game.
ITALY VS. UKRAINE. This will be the fourth meeting between the two sides in Italy, with two wins (in Bari and Roma) and a draw in Genoa in 2018, in a friendly that paid tribute to the victims of Ponte Morandi. In total. there have been eight previous meetings (six wins and two draws, 15 goals for and three against), with Italy unbeaten. Out of those six successes, the most important was certainly the 3-0 win in Hamburg in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals: goals from Zambrotta and Toni (double).
One year since their last appearance in Milan (1-0 win over England in September 2022), the Men’s national team will play their 61st game in the city where their first-ever game took place (15 May 1910 at the Arena Civica, beating France 6-2), as well as the first time wearing the infamous Blue Azzurro shirt (in 1911 against Hungary with the badge sewn on following two games in white). The win one year ago ended a decade of misery in Milan, after not winning there since 2012 (3-1 against Denmark) and drawing five out of the previous six games there, including the 2018 World Cup qualifying playoff defeat to Sweden and the defeat to Spain.
Milan is second for the number of games to host the National team there (60, behind Roma with 62), and first for the number of wins recorded (38, like Roma, followed by Turin with 25) and goals scored (141, Roma 114 and Torino 81). Here, the Azzurri were unbeaten for almost a century, 96 years to be exact: from losing 2-1 in January 1925 to Hungary to the 2-1 defeat by Spain in October 2021 (first-ever defeat at San Siro).
| Group C TEAM | GP | W | D | L | GD | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | +14 | 12 |
| Ukraine | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Italy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 3 |
| North Macedonia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -7 | 3 |
| Malta | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -8 | 0 |
THE GROUP . With three points from two games, after victory over Malta following the home defeat by England, the Azzurri now face their two main rivals for second place, and automatic qualification to the Euros in Germany next summer. North Macedonia and Ukraine collected important points in the group games played in June, while the Azzurri were in action in the Nations League Finals.
Leading the group are England with 12 points (after four games played), followed by Ukraine with six points (three games played), and North Macedonia (three) and Italy (two) on three points. It is going to be an intense Autumn for the Azzurri after these two games, with four games spanning October and November: Italy will first face Malta in Bari on 14 October and then England at Wembley three days later. In November, the final two games see a home game in Rome with North Macedonia on the 17th and away to Ukraine on the 20th. The top two automatically go through to the Finals (20 teams plus hosts Germany), while the final three spots will be played out through the playoffs: the 12 Nations League group winners (League A/B/C) who haven’t qualified (or the next team in the League final standings) will face other other in three groups of four teams in the semi-finals, with the final a one-off game.