Team preview: Can Italy repeat as European champions at Euro 2024? | UEFA Euro 2024 news

Italy – Main Euro statistics

Euro holdings: 10
European titles: two
Best finish: Winners (1968, 2020)
Euro record: W21 D18 L6
Goals scored: 52
Biggest win: 3-0 (against Turkey and Switzerland at Euro 2020)
Player to watch: Frederico Dimarco
World ranking: 9th
Group games:

• 15th of June: Italy vs Albania (BVB Stadion, Dortmund, 9pm local/7pm GMT)
• June 20: Spain x Italy (AufSchalke Arena, Gelsenkirchen, 9pm local/7pm GMT)
• June 24th: Croatia x Italy (Leipzig Stadium, Leipzig, 9pm local/7pm GMT)

How to follow our Euro 2024 coverage: UEFA Euro 2024 on Al Jazeera

Italy arrives at the Euros as current champions, but the title comes without an aura; it has been gradually eroding since that incredible summer night at Wembley, London in 2021.

Less than a year after their greatest Euro glory, the Azzurri faced the ignominy of missing out on the 2022 Qatar World Cup after a stunning injury-time goal saw them lose their playoff semi-final to football minnows Macedonia. North.

The Euro 2024 qualifying campaign was equally difficult.

After the first two qualifiers – a defeat to England and a victory over Malta – Italy were rocked by the dismissal of coach Roberto Mancini, after more than five years in charge.

He was replaced by Luciano Spalletti, whose first game in charge was a 1-1 draw, which also came against their 2022 foes North Macedonia. With just one win from their opening three games, qualification for Euro 2024 suddenly looked precarious.

A run of three wins in four matches saw Italy go into their final group game against Ukraine knowing that a defeat would see them through to the playoffs. A tense goalless draw secured direct passage to the Euros due to their superior head-to-head record.

I bet it went wrong

In addition to the qualification problems, the Italian team’s preparations were rocked by a betting scandal that saw police visit the national team’s training center in Coverciano ahead of the qualifiers in October to question Sandro Tonali and Nicolo Zaniolo. The pair subsequently left the camp and Tonali was subsequently banned for 10 months by the Italian Football Federation.

Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli was also suspended for seven months after being found guilty in the investigation, but was named in Italy’s latest 26-man squad for Euro 2024.

His inclusion is an indication of the scarcity of attacking options in front of Spalletti.

Zaniolo and striker Domenico Berardi were ruled out of the tournament due to injury, while Marco Verratti and Lorenzo Insigne no longer play for their European clubs and have lost their national popularity.

Injuries have hampered Federico Chiesa’s progress, with the 26-year-old Juventus striker yet to regain the form that saw him shine at Euro 2020.

Gianluca Scamacca, who scored 19 goals for Europa League winners Atalanta this season, is expected to lead the line but has scored just once for Italy in 15 appearances.

Giacomo Raspadori is the other attacking option at Spalletti’s disposal, but he has scored just 12 goals in the last two seasons.

Defense is the best form of attack

All of this points to a team that will be built around its defense. Unsurprisingly, the Azzurri have no shortage of talent in this department – ​​their 30-player preliminary squad features 11 defensive eleven.

Of these 11, four were from Inter Milan – before Francesco Acerbi’s late withdrawal due to injury – and given the Nerazzurri’s parsimonious defense this year, Inter’s remaining three defenders are likely to start in Germany.

Inter’s 22 goals conceded in Serie A this season are the lowest of any club in Europe’s top five leagues. The feat was achieved by playing a back three. Therefore, replicating a system with a group of defenders already comfortable playing seems almost a no-brainer for Spalletti’s Euro 2024 squad.

The coach fielded a three-man defense for the first time in his tenure in the March 2024 friendlies against Venezuela and Ecuador, with Italy winning both. The sample size is small, but the ceiling may be high.

A defense made up of Alessandro Bastoni and Alessandro Boungiorni – Acerbi’s likely replacement – ​​with Federico Dimarco and Matteo Darmian at full-back is, on paper, one of the best defenses at Euro 2024.

But will this be enough to take them to the bottom of the tournament?

Spalletti admitted in an interview with Sky Italia that there are other countries that are at a higher level than Italy, but he supported his team to compete with them.

“Our goal is to come back from Germany and hear the Italians say, ‘We’re proud of you,’” he said.

Drawn in a tough group that includes Spain, Croatia and Albania, even a quarter-final result would greatly help Spalletti achieve this goal.

If the Italians can pull off an unlikely victory in the tournament, they will join Germany and Spain as record three-time European champions.

Italy’s final squad for Euro 2024

Captain: Gianluigi Donnarumma

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris St Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham Hotspur)

Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter Milan), Raoul Bellanova (Torino), Alessandro Buongiorno (Torino), Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter de Milan), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Gianluca Mancini (Roma)

Midfielders: Nicolo Barella (Inter Milan), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Nicolo Fagioli (Juventus), Michael Folorunsho (Hellas Verona), Davide Frattesi (Inter Milan), Jorginho (Arsenal), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma)

Advanced: Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Stephan El Shaarawy (Roma), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio)

You can follow the action on Al Jazeera’s dedicated Euro 2024 tournament page with all match build-up and live text commentary, and stay up to date with group standings and real-time results and match schedules.