Although it has been undefeated against Switzerland for 31 years, Italy “absolutely does not underestimate” the Nati, said defender Alessandro Buongiorno two days before the round of 16 of Euro 2024 in Berlin. “The match against Switzerland is going to be super complicated. “It’s a strong team, with very mobile players who know how to find spaces and very fast attackers,” he declared at a press conference from the Nazionale base camp in Iserlohn. “We absolutely do not underestimate this team,” he insisted.
“The progress of the group stage showed that no match was easy, some major teams had difficulty reaching the round of 16. This reinforces our idea that we must not underestimate any opponent and that we must be 100% every time,” underlined the Torino defender, where he has played alongside Ricardo Rodriguez for four years.
After qualifying for the round of 16 was snatched in added time against Croatia (1-1) and France’s 2nd place in Group D, “our part of the table is clearly less strong”, admitted Buongiorno ( 4 selections). “But each meeting in this Euro is complicated, it will not be easy if we want to achieve our objective, which is to go to the end of this tournament,” he warned.
The 25-year-old defender – who has not yet played during this Euro – could be started to replace Riccardo Calafiori, suspended for the round of 16 for accumulation of warnings. “I don’t know if I’m going to play, I’m trying to give my best in training and complicate the decisions that the coach has to make,” he said.
Switzerland is the team that the Nazionale has faced the most in its history (61 matches), with a record largely to its advantage: 29 victories, 24 draws and 8 defeats, the last dating back to June 1993.
On the road to its coronation at Wembley in 2021, Italy dominated Switzerland 3-0 in the group stage of the last Euro, but the Nati has since deprived the Nazionale of direct qualification for the 2022 World Cup with a draw ( 1-1) in Rome in November 2021 at the end of the qualifiers. Italy then missed out on their ticket to Qatar after a 0-1 defeat in Palermo in the play-offs against North Macedonia.
