Current European Cup champions, Italy play a decisive game against under-pressure Croatia, third placed in the 2022 World Cup. The atmosphere is final, as the duel means classification (or chance of advancing to the knockout stage) or elimination. The ball rolls at 4pm (Brasília time), at the Red Bull Arena, in Leipzig, Germany, with broadcast from SportTV.
Italy only depends on a draw to guarantee a place in the round of 16 of the Euro. The Italian team is in second place in Group B, with three points. As they beat Albania, which can also reach four points and face Spain at the same time, the Azzurri would have an advantage in the tiebreaker criteria – in this case, direct confrontation.
However, the pressure is that a defeat would complicate life for the Italians, who would be overtaken by Croatia. Thus, they would have to dry Albania to finish in third place and depend on the other groups. At Euro, the four best third-placed teams guarantee a place in the knockout stages.
Italy started the Euros with a 2-1 victory over Albania and lost to Spain 1-0 in the last round.
Walk around 👀🏟️ Leipzig Stadium#EURO2024 #CroatiaItaly#National #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/G4AXOGckQZ
— Italian national team ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri) June 23, 2024
Under-pressure Croatia, in turn, lost to Spain 3-0 in their debut, and then drew 2-2 with Albania. In this way, at the bottom of the group, they are practically forced to beat Italy this Monday.
In the event of a draw, in addition to drying Albania, Croatia would depend on a miracle to advance in third place with two points. Two teams (Austria and Slovakia) have three points and are in third place in their groups. This way, there would be two fewer places to fight for.
👀#EURO2024 #Fiery❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/TLSguV46qZ
— HNS (@HNS_CFF) June 23, 2024
PROBABLE SCALATIONS
Croatia: Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Erlic, Josko Gvardiol; Luka Modric, Kovacic, Sucic; Pasalic, Kramaric e Budimir.
Técnico: Slatko Dalic.
Italy: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Cambiaso; Jorginho, Barella, Frattesi; Chiesa, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Scamacca.
Coach: Luciano Spalletti.
ARBITRATION
The refereeing for the match will be entirely Dutch, with Danny Makkelie as main referee, and Hessel Steegstra and Jan de Vries as assistants. Rob Dieperink will be in charge of VAR.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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