Italy vs England

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona forms the backdrop for a mouth-watering Euro 2024 qualifier between Euro 2020 finalists Italy and England.

Despite failing to navigate Italy’s way to the 2022 World Cup, head coach Roberto Mancini has kept hold of his job by the skin of his teeth as he looks to remedy that by helping ‘Gli Azzurri’ qualify for the tournament they won in 2021. Indeed, Italy’s journey to Euro 2024 incidentally kickstarts against an England side they defeated in the Euro 2020 grand final. That success, though it came via penalties, forms part of Italy’s impressive six-game unbeaten streak against the ‘Three Lions’ (W3, D3). It’s also worth noting that they last lost a home match against this opposition in 1961, while they’ve not lost a European Championship qualifying fixture on home turf since 1999! If that’s not enough to boost the hosts’ confidence, they won’t have to look beyond the fact their last defeat in a Euro qualifier anywhere dates back to 2006 (W34, D6).

Shattering Italy’s formidable form in Euro qualifiers will require England to bounce back from a heartbreaking 2022 World Cup quarter-final elimination at the hands of France. Amends for a demoralizing Euro 2020 defeat could prove a powerful incentive for Gareth Southgate, who’s one triumph away from becoming only the third England manager to hit a 50-win landmark. But like his Italy counterpart Mancini, Southgate’s job hangs by a thread after the ‘Three Lions’ suffered a shock UEFA Nations League relegation to League B last summer and failed to make a standout result in Qatar afterward. England’s underwhelming away showings in 2022 saw them go winless on all three continental travels (D1, L2), failing to score in both defeats in that sequence.

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