Italy’s Euro 2024 qualification campaign gets underway on Thursday night at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Napoli, home of the runaway Serie A leaders. They will be taking on a familiar foe in England.
It is a rematch of the Euro 2020 final which saw the Italians beat the English on penalties at Wembley. Despite that, excitement is low around the national team given the failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Italy are in Group C of the qualifiers and beyond England, they will be up against Malta, Ukraine and the team that stopped them from reaching the World Cup, North Macedonia. They will be desperate to take the pressure off of those later games by getting a big result against England on Thursday.
Italy vs England: Predicted lineups
There are some important names missing from both of the squads. Italy have seen Federico Chiesa, Federico Dimarco and Ivan Provedel all pull out with injuries, whilst Ciro Immobile and Giacomo Raspadori are both missing from the forward line.
That has opened the door for Roberto Mancini to bring two young strikers with him on the camp, the Argentina-born Tigre forward Mateo Retegui and Udinese’s 17-year-old Simone Pafundi.
England have lost Marcus Rashford, Nick Pope and Mason Mount from their squad due to injuries but beyond that Gareth Southgate has much of his favoured team available.
Italy predicted XI vs England (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Acerbi, Romagnoli, Spinazzola; Stretcher, Verratti, Jorginho; Berardi, Retegui, Grifo.
England predicted XI vs Italy (4-3-3): Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Grealish.
Italy vs England: When does the European qualifier start?
The European qualifier of Italy vs England is set to kick off at 20:45 CET on Thursday which is the local time in Italy. That means it will be a 19:45 GMT kick-off in the United Kingdom.
For those in the United States of America, Italy vs England will get underway at 15:45 ET/12:45 PT.
Italy vs England: Where to watch the European qualifier?
For those wanting to watch Italy vs England in the United Kingdom, the game will be free to watch on Channel 4. In the USA, Italy vs England can be watched on VIX+ and Fox Sports 1.
