Football: Italy vs England, a duel at the top

Tonight, Thursday, March 23, the meeting between Italy and England during this first day of qualification for Euro 2024 will take place at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples. At 8.45 p.m., Roberto Mancini for Italy and Gareth Southgate for England will attend the first qualifying match of their new teams. Who will win this highly anticipated duel?

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Stats and facts

If we refer to the last 10 years, Italy and England have met 9 times on the field with a single victory for England (friendly match in 2012), 6 draws and 2 wins for Italy. We will therefore see a meeting between two teams with relatively equal power and quite close in the FIFA ranking: England is 5th (just under our national team) and Italy is in 8th place.

The Italian team remains formidable with an impressive record in the world of soccer. In the European Championship, they won the title in 2020 against England... On penalties. More recently, the last duel between the two formations, was won by the Squadra Azzurra, on September 23, 2022, in the Nations League.

A complicated first match for Italy

The question is whether the Azzurri will be able to count on the support of their fans in the stands in Naples on Thursday. It would be a good start for their morale to win this game, the most complicated of their group, because after that, Italy should easily overcome the other teams which are Malta, North Macedonia and Ukraine. Provided that they do the job every time. Another question: what does Italy have to show without Ciro Immobile?

An English team on the rise

As for the English team, this match will be an opportunity for revenge following their defeat, relatively speaking, against Italy in the final at Euro 2020. There is also a strong chance that they will also win the games that are coming up in their group. The only thing is to pass this famous first step against the Italians. The most difficult absence is that of Marcus Rashford (injured), but fortunately, Southgate can count on his strikers Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka.

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