England vs Italy

Wembley Stadium is the venue as England and Italy go head-to-head in a blockbuster Euro 2024 qualifying Group C encounter.

Even though a 1-1 draw against Ukraine last time out knocked them down from a flawless five-game start to their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign (W5), England are one win away from booking their tickets for next summer’s tournament in Germany. Doing so with two games to spare against a side that denied them continental glory two years ago in a delayed Euro 2020 grand final would complete England’s revenge following a 2-1 victory in the reverse fixture. Gareth Southgate’s second-string line-up claimed a 1-0 win over Australia in a friendly a few days ago, stretching their unbeaten run to seven matches (W6, D1). However, you’d need to go back to 1977 for England’s last home triumph against Italy. Ten clean sheets across their 12 most recent Euro qualifiers on home turf can inspire their bid to arrest that underwhelming run.

Since that abovementioned defeat, the Italians have gone six straight visits to English soil without losing (W3, D3), most recently sharing the spoils in a 0-0 draw in last summer’s UEFA Nations League fixture. But the stakes are much higher for Italy this time around as they commence this round second in Group C, level on points with third-placed Ukraine, albeit with a game in hand. Luciano Spalletti has overseen back-to-back qualifying wins over Ukraine and Malta in the build-up to this trip after a gut-wrenching 1-1 draw against North Macedonia on his touchline debut. His decent start to life as ‘Gli Azzurri’ boss sounds inspiring, but there’s no room for complacency, with the visitors bidding to improve their indifferent five-game form away from home (W2, D1, L2). It’s worth mentioning they conceded 2+ goals three times during that sequence.