Italy “absolutely does not underestimate Switzerland”, its opponent in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 on Saturday in Berlin, defender Alessandro Buongiorno assured Thursday. However, the Nati has not beaten its neighbor for 31 years.
Switzerland-Italy: history of this Alpine derby
A look back at the latest duels between the two nations, who will face each other in the round of 16 of Euro 2024.
27.06.2024
“The match against Switzerland is going to be super complicated. It’s a strong team which has very mobile players who know how to find spaces, very fast attackers,” Buongiorno said at a press conference from the Nazionale base camp in Iserlohn (west). “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.
Calafiori’s replacement?
After the qualification for the round of 16 was snatched in added time against Croatia (1-1) and in particular France’s second place in its group, “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.
An ancestral rivalry
Switzerland is the team that the Nazionale has faced the most in its history (61 matches), with a record largely in favor of Italy with 29 victories, 24 draws and eight 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 a 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 1-0 defeat in Palermo in the play-offs against North Macedonia.
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