Sweden will be Italy’s opponents in the European play-offs for the four remaining places at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. After today’s draw in Zurich, it has been established that the Azzurri will play away on Friday 10th November while the home match will be on Monday 13th November.

Second in Group A behind France, Sweden qualified thanks to their superior goal difference over the Netherlands. They took 19 points in their group, with 26 goals for and nine against. Janne Andersson’s team are currently 25th in the FIFA Ranking and they beat France 2-1 on 9th June at the Friends Arena in Solna.

There have been 23 previous meetings with Sweden with eleven Azzurri wins, six draws and as many defeats. The last meeting was on 17th June 2016 in Toulouse at the European Championship where Italy won thanks to Eder’s goal two minutes from time and the result saw the Azzurri make the knockout stage with a game to spare.

“It’s not an easy draw,” said team manager Gabriele Oriali in Zurich. “We’re expecting a very difficult challenge, there will be a warm atmosphere in Sweden but we are ready for this extremely important test. It could have gone better but we are Italy and we can’t be afraid of anybody. We’ll take on an excellent side who did well in their group, beating France and eliminating the Netherlands. We hope that we’ll have some of the players back who we missed in the past matches and have a full squad and we hope to be in better condition physically. I’m sure that regardless of the venue, the crowd will give us the energy to express ourselves as an Italy side.”

Sweden coach Janne Andersson aslo discussed the draw to Rai Sport. “Italy are strong but so are Sweden,” he said. “Now, it depends on us to prepare as well as possible, we are aware of the task that awaits us.”

Draw in full
Northern Ireland vs. Switzerland
Croatia vs. Greece
Denmark vs. Republic of Ireland
Sweden vs. ITALY