Italy To Harness Reigning Champion Edge In Euro 2024 Opener Versus Albania
Luciano Spalletti hopes Italy can leverage their status as reigning champions when they begin their Euro 2024 campaign against Albania on Saturday. The Azzurri clinched Euro 2020 by defeating England on penalties after a 1-1 draw, securing their second European title. Following Roberto Mancini's unexpected departure last year, Spalletti took over, leading the team to qualify for Euro 2024.
Spalletti expressed his confidence in Italy's potential to win the tournament again. "It feels like heaven to be in situations like these," Spalletti told UEFA.com. "Matches come and go. These tournaments are really important, and this is why we need to be prepared for everything; as we say in our anthem, 'We are ready to die' for these matches."
He added, "In my opinion, coming into the tournament as defending champions is an advantage. But we need to understand straight away that we need to behave like defending champions. We will only see whether or not we are up to the task during the matches. In a way, we are facing ourselves, not the outside world. We need to show what we are made of, to show what we have inside."
Albania is making its second appearance at the Euros, their first since 2016 when they were eliminated in the group stage. After topping a qualifying group that included the Czech Republic and Poland, Albania has been drawn into the 'group of death,' which also features Spain and Croatia.
Sylvinho remains optimistic about Albania's chances. "We do all of this together and understand what we're all after," Sylvinho told UEFA.com. "We've achieved things, we've made it to the Euros: that's some feat. We've got this far, we know our size, we're improving."
"It's set to be a real challenge. However, we'll knuckle down to work. The games will be fantastic but hard, and if we're able to overcome our opponents, we want to keep going. We're doing well, but if we can take another step forward, then even better," he added.
Italy
Nicolo Barella: Barella registered more assists than any other Italy player during Euro 2024 qualifying (three) and created seven more chances than any other Italian player (15). Barella also assisted two goals during Italy's victorious Euro 2020 campaign. The Azzurri will be hoping he can get fit in time to start the tournament.
Albania
Jasir Asani: Asani was Albania's joint-top goalscorer during Euro 2024 qualifying, scoring three times (level with Nedim Bajrami). All three of his strikes were scored from outside the box.
Match Prediction
This will be Italy and Albania's first encounter at a major tournament. Italy has won all four of their previous meetings with Albania (seven goals for, one against), which have all taken place since 2014.
Italy has not conceded more than one goal in a match across their last two Euros participations in 2016 and 2020: that is a total of six goals conceded across their last 12 matches in the competition.
Italy's 45 matches at the Euros have produced an average of 1.84 goals (52 for, 31 against), which is the lowest ratio among any of the 25 teams that have taken part in 10+ matches in the competition.
This is just Albania's second appearance at a major international tournament after Euro 2016; their sole victory in this competition came against Romania in the final group match that year (1-0). After losing their first Euro 2024 qualifier against Poland, Albania did not lose any of their next seven (W4 D3).
| Team | Win Probability |
|---|---|
| Italy | 66.3% |
| Draw | 19.6% |
| Albania | 14.2% |
#EURO2024 #Nazionale 🇮🇹 #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/Rn9IOAppTh
— Nazionale Italiana (@Azzurri) June 12, 2024
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