The Italian Men’s National Team return to action on Friday night in a crunch encounter against North Macedonia at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with their Euro 2024 Qualification hopes potentially on the line.
Defeat to England last time out leaves the Azzurri in a precarious position in Group C, as they languish in third place and trail Ukraine by three points, albeit with a game in hand.
Indeed, a failure to beat North Macedonia would take qualification out of Italy‘s control ahead of the vital match against Ukraine in Gelsenkirchen on Monday, and they would require a win in that final game to stand any hope of reaching the tournament. However, victory in Rome on Friday would put them in the driving seat for that crucial fixture.
Italy vs North Macedonia: Predicted line-ups
Spalletti is facing mounting injury problems and is without Alex Meret, Davide Calabria, Rafael Toloi, Manuel Locatelli, whilst Giovanni Di Lorenzo is suspended and Sandro Tonali serves a global ban. There are also doubts surrounding the fitness of centre-back Alessandro Bastoni.
Arsenal midfielder Jorginho has returned to the squad and is expected to start against North Macedonia, whilst the former Napoli and AS Roma coach is expected to field Federico Chiesa and Domenico Berardi either side of Gianluca Scamacca in attack.
Former Palermo striker Aleksandar Trajkovski is expected to lead the line for North Macedonia, in front of Napoli midfielder Eljif Elmas. Ex-Leeds United star Ezgjan Alioski will provide the width, opposite Stefan Lashkovski.
Italy predicted line-up vs North Macedonia (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Darmian, Acerbi, Gatti, Dimarco; Barella, Jorginho, Frattesi; Berardi, Scamacca, Chiesa
North Macedonia predicted line-up vs Italy (3-4-2-1): Dimitrievski; Manev, Musliu, Serafimov; Ashkovski, Ademi, Atanasov, Alioski; Bardhi, Elmas; Trajkovski
Italy vs North Macedonia: When does the Euro 2024 qualification fixture start?
The Euro 2024 qualifying fixture of Italy vs North Macedonia kicks off at 20:45 CEST, and 19:45 BST for those in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
In the United States, kick-off of Italy vs North Macedonia is 14:45 EDT or 11:45 PDT.
Italy vs North Macedonia: Where to watch the Euro 2024 qualification fixture?
In the United States, you can watch Italy vs North Macedonia on ViX; in the United Kingdom and Ireland, you can watch Italy vs North Macedonia on Viaplay.
