Belgium faces Italy this Thursday evening in the Nations League. Follow this clash live with RTL sports.
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Belgium – Italy, live
19h57
The justifications of Domenico Tedesco
The coach specifies that, according to him, all the players are in their best position. Regarding Arne Engels, Tedesco explains that the midfielder is in very good form at Celtic.
19h44
The Italian eleven
Here are Spalletti’s choices for this match against our Red Devils.
19h36
The Compo des Diables
We will probably play with 5 defenders this Thursday evening. Tedesco trusts Engels in midfield.
7:30 p.m.
Good evening everyone!
Welcome to this live to experience, together, this clash between Italy and Belgium.
The compositions
Belgium: Casteels, Theate, Faes, Debast, Castagne, De Cuyper, Engels, Onana, Trossard, Openda, Lukaku
Italy: Donnarumma, Bastoni, Buongiorno, Di Lorenzo, Dimarco, Tonali, Rovella, Frattesi, Cambiaso, Barella, Retegui
Before the match
Italy, leader of its group and trying to emerge from a long slump, only needs one point to secure its ticket for the quarter-finals of the League of Nations against a Belgium team in full swing. experimental phase, Thursday in Brussels.
For Belgium, 3rd with four points (behind France, 9 pts), there is no longer any choice to hope to finish second and therefore appear in the quarterfinals: they will have to win. But the hope of qualification is slim as the Red Devils are not in control of their fate while they are also slow to rebuild a competitive team.
Undefeated since its defeat at Euro 2024 in Germany where it ceded its continental title in the round of 16 against Switzerland (2-0), Italy, deprived of the last two World Cups, seems little by little to be recovering. get back on track, symbolized in particular by a victory in France (3-1) during the first day of competition at the beginning of September.
One point will be enough for Brussels. But his coach Luciano Spalletti has already warned that he will not make any calculations and that he will not be satisfied with a draw against the Belgians or France three days later in Milan. “It seems easy, a point to take, but that will not be our way of thinking. If we approach these matches thinking only about that point, we will be wrong. These are going to be difficult matches, we cannot be presumptuous,” he explained at a press conference.
Uncertain potential
Although he will be deprived of one of the revelations of the start of the season, Torino midfielder Samuele Ricci, injured, Spalletti can count on two particularly fit attackers, Mateo Retegui (Atalanta) and Moise Kean (Fiorentina), up front of the scorers’ rankings in Serie A with eleven and eight goals respectively.
His alter ego Domenico Tedesco has none for certainties. The Italian-German coach of Belgium is faced with a monumental reconstruction operation after the gradual withdrawal of most of the executives of the so-called “golden” generation (3rd in the 2018 World Cup) and the injuries of certain others. Since taking office eighteen months ago, Tedesco has called up no less than 53 different players, a sign of real trial and error.
Given the injury to Kevin De Bruyne and the prolonged sulking of Thibaut Courtois, only Romelu Lukaku will appear as a glorious elder on Thursday, to try to guide a new generation whose true potential observers are slow to assess. If the attack remains a source of hope (with the Doku, absent Thursday, Bakayoko, Duranville, Openda, Trossard, and others De Ketelaere), if the midfield is rebuilt around Onana, Tielemans and soon Lavia, the defense It remains a worrying project.
The days of Kompany, Vertonghen, Alderweireld and Vermaelen seem far away when we compare their pedigree with their current successors, the Fae, Debast and Theate. And with this in mind, Thursday’s duel at the King Baudouin stadium will be an interesting test.
Belgium Italy Live Live Tedesco Engels composition
