The European Qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup continue with 54 games in six days starting on Thursday when Italy hosting Spain.• The nine group winners will advance directly to join Russia in the 32-team final tournament.• The eight runners-up with the best record against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their groups procede to play-offs to decide the remaining four European berths. September highlights: Spain score eight... UEFA.com - News
Tag: italy
Spain hit eight, Italy and Wales star, Kosovo begin well
Group DGeorgia 1-2 AustriaAustria withstood a late Georgia comeback to take all three points. Martin Hinteregger headed in David Alaba's 16th-minute free-kick to put the visitors in front and Marc Janko added a second just before half-time. Valeri Kaziashvili struck the post for Georgia before Jano Ananidze's spectacular long-range drive made it a nervous last 12 minutes for Austria. Wales 4-0 MoldovaThe UEFA EURO 2016 semi-finalists aim to end a 60-year absence from the FIFA World Cup finals and made a great start. Gareth Bales' cross was nod... UEFA.com - News
Captain Romagna introduces Italy squad
Alex Meret (goalkeeper, Udinese)Very quiet; really quiet guy.Andrea Zaccagno (goalkeeper, Torino)Quiet as well, but he's a sunny guy. He's always smiling.Davide Vitturini (defender, Pescara)He always pays attention. Incredibly focused, concentrates on everything.Federico Dimarco (defender, Internazionale)An absolute truck!Giuseppe Pezzella (defender, Palermo)If Dimarco's a truck, he's a tank. He's an absolutely massive guy.Mauro Coppolaro (defender, Udinese)... UEFA.com - News
Meet new Italy coach Giampiero Ventura
Giampiero Ventura has held his first press conference as Italy coach since replacing Antonio Conte; UEFA.com lists ten things you may not know about the 68-year-old, who will lead the Azzurri through qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.• This is not the first time that Ventura has replaced Conte. He did so – with success – in the summer of 2009 after Conte led Bari to promotion to Serie A. Ventura guided Bari to tenth place in the top flight with a club record of 50 points in Serie A, drawing twice against José Mourinho's Inter and beating Juventus 3-1.• Ventura is an admirer of Josep Guardiola and Spanish football. "Just to have...
Italy run deserves to be remembered
"Everything we have done will be forgotten in a few years. Nobody will remember this national team which gave absolutely everything."Listening to Andrea Barzagli's tearful words after Italy's penalty shoot-out defeat by Germany on Saturday night felt like a punch in the stomach. It hurt especially because the veteran centre-back is probably right. Simone Zaza and Graziano Pellè's spot-kick mishaps will likely obscure what was otherwise a wonderful campaign from the Azzurri. That would be wrong, though, because Italy had a great tournament despite coming up one penalty short of the world champions in Bordeaux....
Italy of ’06 in numbers
Haircuts, concerts, birthplaces, resting places and a mad dash feature in our look at the statistics surrounding the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. So, grab yourself a Cappuccino, Espresso or Latte and let FIFA.com deliver you the intriguing numbers behind Italy’s conquering of the 18th FIFA World Cup. 70,000 fans is what Marcello Lippi’s players performed in front of during in the second full week of July – but it was not in Berlin and there were only two squad members present. Only two days after helping Italy overcome France in front of 69,000 at the Olympiastadion, Mick Jagger welcomed Alessandro Del Piero and Marco Materazzi on to the ...
The importance of Spain’s defeat of Italy in 2008
It would be foolish to ignore that the final of UEFA EURO 2012 actually yielded the Henri Delaunay trophy itself when Spain defeated Italy 4-0.But ask any of the players involved in La Roja's breakthrough tournament win, back in 2008, and they will attach almost mystical importance to the fact that they defeated their bête noire, Italy, in a sweaty, tense, heroic quarter-final in Vienna. Spain had not beaten the Azzurri in a competitive fixture for eight decades. From the moment Howard Webb blew the final whistle on Spain's 2-1 win against Greece in the group stage there were 94