Key occasions
Spain make one change to their beginning line-up after the 3-0 win over Croatia. Aymeric Laporte takes the place of Nacho in defence.
Italy are unchanged after their 2-1 victory over Albania. No nice shock there: that opening group win was their fourth of their final 5 video games.
The groups
Spain: Simon, Carvajal, Le Normand, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Fabian, Yamal, Morata, Williams.
Subs: Raya, Vivian, Merino, Joselu, Olmo, Torres, Grimaldo, Remiro, Baena, Zubimendi, Oyarzabal, Jesus Navas, Lopez, Perez, Nacho.
Italy: Donnarumma, Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco, Frattesi, Jorginho, Barella, Chiesa, Scamacca, Pellegrini.
Subs: Buongiorno, Gatti, Raspadori, Vicario, Darmian, Bellanova, Cristante, Mancini, Retegui, Zaccagni, Fagioli, El Shaarawy, Cambiaso, Folorunsho, Meret.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
Preamble
It’s the European Championship finals, so after all it must be Spain v Italy. That is the fifth finals in a row through which these two giants of European soccer meet. Spain beat the Azzurri within the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, then trounced them 4-0 within the Euro 2012 closing, a document win within the showpiece as they grew to become the primary staff to retain the European Championship. Italy have gotten their very own again since, beating La Roja within the spherical of 16 at Euro 2016, then within the semis en path to profitable Euro 2020.
Go a wee bit additional again and there have been different huge match showdowns, ones Spain would slightly ignore: Italy triumphed within the quarter-finals of the 1934 and 1994 World Cups, and knocked them out of the teams at Euro 80 and Euro 88. Spain nonetheless have the slight edge on the general document, with 13 wins set in opposition to 11 losses in 40 conferences.
So Italy have had Spain’s quantity most of the time within the tournaments, however Spain have extra all-time victories, plus they’ve thrashed Italy in a closing. Good luck guessing who’s going to take management of Group B in Gelsenkirchen tonight, then. Kick-off is at 8pm. It’s on!
