England, Italy clash for Euro 2024 qualification

MANILA, Philippines – The England national football team returns to action against Italy on October 18 in the second round of group stage qualification for Euro 2024.

The venue will be Wembley Stadium in London, where Italy dealt England a crushing home field blow in the finals of Euro 2021, 3-2 in penalties after both teams finished extra time knotted at 1-1.

The 2:45 a.m. match will be televised live in the Philippines on Premier Football on Skycable and Cignal as well as on the TapGo TV streaming application.

It isn’t the finals, but England will want to sweep Italy in the group stages. Gareth Southgate has overseen a revival of the England National Team since his tenure began in 2016. His squad defeated Italy, 2-1, in what was a very close affair at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples last March 23.

Declan Rice put England ahead with a score in only the 13th minute, after which Harry Kane drilled a spot kick right before the end of the first half. 

As expected, Italy made a game of it in the second half as they quickly scored through Matteo Retegui in the 56th minute. Head coach Luciano Spallletti’s men were unable to score after that.

The Three Lions are currently on top of Group C with a 4-win and 1-draw slate for 13 points to boot. 

Italy is in second with a 2-1-1 record and is being crowded by Ukraine and North Macedonia, which share similar win-draw-loss records except for goal difference.

Harry Kane leads England with five goals while Davide Frattesi and Mateo Rettegui have two goals each for Italy.

In head-to-head competition between the two nations, Italy holds the advantage with 13 wins to England’s nine along with nine draws. But of late, it has been all Italy as England has been able to fashion out three wins in their last 18 encounters. 

Aside from Kane, England features Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, James Maddison, Jude Bellingham, Lewis Dunk and Jordan Pickford to name but a few of their Premier League stars.

The Azzurri are led by captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Domenico Berardi, Giacomo Raspadori, Federico Chiesa, Matteo Darmian and Giovani Di Lorenzo, among others.