(Football news) Italy welcomes England to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for Thursday’s first match for the Euro 2024 qualifying Group C match. The Azzurri made sure that football would not come home when they defeated England on penalties in the Euro 2020 final, but Roberto Mancini’s team have since lost their spark and surprisingly lost to North Macedonian nightmares in the World Cup playoff match.

Italy once again came up short in their bid to appear in another World Cup Finals as they lost to North Macedonia in the playoff semi-final. They lost to Argentina who barely broke a sweat in a 3-0 Finalissima but on the other hand, Italy have reached the final four of the Nations League after beating England, Hungary and Germany to top spot in League A Group 3.

Italy has a semi-final with Spain in June. The Azzurri have gone on to win each of their last 14 qualification games and are also unbeaten in 40 games since going down 3-1 to France in 2006. It has been 24 years since Italy last lost a Euros qualifier on home soil as they had suffered a 3-2 defeat to Denmark in 1999

England were unable to take inspiration from the women’s team who won the Euro 2022. Another quarter-final exit for England in Qatar saw Gareth Southgate get a lot of criticism as their golden generation saw another opportunity at silverware pass them by. There are still some nightmares for the England fans when Harry Kane’s second penalty against France was still rising, and a plethora of questions were asked over Southgate’s future. The FA put massive faith in him and will continue to manage England at least till Euro 2024.

Southgate will play in the UEFA Nations League B following a torrid relegation from the big time last year. The Three Lions have gone on to win 17 games from their last 18 Euros qualifying matches, their last loss was a 2-1 loss to the Czech Republic in October 2019. If Southgate wins his next match it will be his 50th victory as England manager.

Only Sir Alf Ramsey and Walter Winterbottom have previously brought up a half-century of wins with England, but Southgate has a major job as his side are winless in their last six matches with Italy in all tournaments. The last time they played Italy they lost 1-0 to the Azzurri during a forgettable 2022-23 Nations League run.

Italy possible starting lineup:

Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Acerbi, Romagnoli, Spinazzola; Barella, Verratti, Jorginho; Berardi, Retegui, Grifo

England possible starting lineup:

Pickford; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw; Henderson, Rice, Bellingham; Saka, Kane, Grealish

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