Euro 2024 Qualifiers: England vs Italy
England and Italy begin their quest to qualify for the Euro 2024 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples this Thursday night.
Both England and Italy will open their Euro 2024 Qualifiers when they play each other at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples, Italy this Thursday, March 23.
England vs Italy preview
This is the first time that England and Italy have drawn each other in a European Championship qualifying group. The last time the two teams met was in the UEFA Nations League in September 2022. It was an ugly game, but Italy came away with a 1-0 victory. In fact, England has failed to win any of their last six away games agains Italy in all competitions, with two draws and four losses. Their last away win was 62 years ago.
England coach Gareth Southgate has yet to win a game against Italy, drawing three and losing one of the last four. If Southgate can get the win this time, it would be his 50th as the England boss, making him just the third manager to reach 50 wins after Sir Alf Ramsey (79) and Walter Winterbottom (82).
The last time Italy won a game in Naples was in November 1997, losing the last four they played there, but they have won their last 14 European Championship qualifiers. (England has won 17 of their last 18.) They have not lost any of their last 40 Euros qualifiers, with 34 wins and six draws. If they beat England, it would be the first time they get consecutive wins over them in 21 years. Italy didn’t qualify for the 2022 World Cup after losing to Macedonia in the playoffs.
One of Italy’s best players right now is striker Vincenzo Grifo, who has scored a career-high 12 top-flight goals fro SC Freiburg this season. They will be without Federico Chiesa and Ciro Immobile.
England will count on midfielder Jude Bellingham, who was England’s top ball-winner in the World Cup with a team-high 16 tackles. For Dortmund, he’s got 125 open-play attacking sequence involvements and is third in that statistic across the Bundesliga. The squad will be without Marcus Rashford, Nick Pope, Mason Mount, and Raheem Sterling, who are all dealing with injuries. They also have Harry Kane, who’s just one goal away from breaking Wayne Rooney’s record for England.
Kickoff is at 3:45 p.m. ET (7:45 p.m. GMT) on Thursday, March 23 at Diego Maradona Stadium.