[ad_1]
Key events
Round of 16: match-by-match analysis
The first phase of the eliminations features some intriguing matches, including Spain v Georgia and France v Belgium, writes Jonathan Wilson…
Match officials today
-
Referee: Shimon Marciniak
-
Referee assistants: Tomasz Listkiewicz and Adam Kupsik
-
Fourth Referee: Facundo Body
-
Video Assistant Referee: Facundo Body
Execution of penalties
Does anyone have a worse record than England? Can any team better Germany’s habit of success? Alex Reed looks at the numbers…
These teams: Cries. Luciano Spalletti makes no fewer than six changes to the team that left him out late on against Croatia. Gianluca Mancini comes in for the suspended Riccardo Calafiori, while Stefan El Shaaraoui, Gianluca Scamaca, Federico Chiesa, Niccolò Fagioli and Brian Cristante also start.
There is only one change to Switzerland’s squad, which they made against Germany last time out. Martin Vargas replaces Silvan Vidmar, who joins Calafiori in the Uefa Naughty Step.
Squads for Switzerland vs Italy
Switzerland: Sommer, Akanji, Rodríguez, Schar, Frouiller, Xhaka, Ridder, Ebischer, Embolo, Vargas, Ndoye.
subtitles: Stergiu, Elvedi, Zakaria, Okafor, Steffen, Mwogo, Zuber, Zesiger, Ciero, Dua, Kobel, Shaqiri, Yashari, Amduni.
Italy: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian; Barella, Fagioli, Cristante; Kiesza, Skamaka, El Shaarawi
subtitles: Buongiorno, Gatti, Fratesi, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Raspadori, Vicario, Bellanova, Reteghi, Zaccani, Cambiaso, Folorunsho, Meret, Dimarco.
Italy: While many Italians were relieved to see Croatia through, their national team manager Luciano Spalletti still believes he has more to prove Euro 2024. Nikki Bandini reports…
Early team news
Mainz right-back Silvan Vidmar misses this game through suspension and Swiss manager Murat Yakin is likely to call up Leonidas Stergiu, who is with Stuttgart, in his place.
Picked up twice during the group stage, Liverpool target Ricardo Calafiori misses out Italy, with Gianluca Mancini likely to step up in his absence. Left-back Federico Dimarco is out with a calf injury and could be replaced by Matteo Darmian, who featured in all three of Italy’s group games.
Round of 16: Switzerland vs Italy
Berlin’s Olympiastadion is the venue for the first of the Round of 16 between Switzerland and Italy, who meet for the third time after the holders pushed the Swiss aside in the group stage on the way to winning the last Euro. Reporting on that match for the Guardian, Jonathan Liew said that “this Italy team has been the revelation of the tournament so far”, but four years into the current iteration of the Azzurri have been relatively unimpressive. However, they have not lost against Switzerland in any of their last 11 meetings in all competitions.
The Swiss emerged from Group A unbeaten but had to settle for second place behind Germany after Niclas Fullkrug’s late equalizer denied them victory against Euro 2024 hosts. Having drawn twice with Italy in qualifying for the last World Cup and largely impressing so far in this tournament, they will fancy their chances of scoring a rare win over Luciano Spalletti’s side today. Kick-off in Berlin is at 17:00 (BST), but we’ll have plenty of team and build-up news in the meantime.
[ad_2]
