The 2024 European Championship resumes, the first match is between Switzerland and Italy.
Italy, the reigning champions, aims to continue its dominance over Switzerland to reach the quarter-finals of the European Championships.Switzerland have not beaten Italy in 31 years and have only eight wins in their 61 previous meetingsBut the Swiss are undefeated this year and their only defeat in 2023 came in the final qualifying match.
Italy have fond memories of playing at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, having beaten France on penalties in the 2006 World Cup final in their last match at the stadium, where they also defeated Austria 2-1 in the final of the 1936 Olympic Games.
Difficult experience for the Azzurri at Euro 2024
Euro 2024 has been a tough experience for the Azzuri so far, conceding a goal after just 23 seconds in their opening 2-1 win over Albania, then being completely outclassed in their 1-0 defeat by Spain, before needing a last-second strike from Italy’s substitute. Mattia Zaccagni to salvage a 1-1 draw against Croatia and finish second in Group B.
Switzerland opened with a 3-1 win over Hungary, before drawing 1-1 against hosts Scotland and Germany.
Switzerland and Italy faced each other in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Both matches were drawn and the Swiss finished top of the qualifying group. Italy lost to North Macedonia in the playoffs and missed out on qualification. For the Italians this is the second consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup.
The official formations of Switzerland – Italy
The formation of Switzerland:
Sommer;
Schär, Akanji, Rodriguez;
Ndoye, Xhaka, Freuler, Aebischer;
Vargas, Rieder, Embolo.
The formation of Italy
Donnarumma;
By Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian
Cristante, Fagioli, Barella;
Church, Scamacca, El Shaarawy.
Swiss players Yann Sommer, Ricardo Rodríguez, Remo Freuler, Noah Okafor, Michel Aebischer, Dan Ndoye, Dennis Zakaria, Silvan Widmer and Xherdan Shaqiri have all played in the Italian Serie A.
Defender Federico Dimarco, meanwhile, is the only member of the Italy squad to have played in Switzerland, having spent a season at Sion in 2017-18.
The winner will face either England or Slovakia in the quarter-finals in Düsseldorf on 6 July.
