THE’Italy Under 21 will challenge Ireland on 15 October at 6.30pm in a match valid for the qualifying group for the 2025 European Championship. Below is the press release on the FIGC website with the 26 players called up:
“One last step before qualification. The time has come for the National Under 21 team to put months of work into practice: Tuesday 15 October, at the ‘Nereo Rocco’ stadium in Trieste (kick-off at 6.30pm and live on Rai 2), at the Carmine Nunziata’s team will only need to not lose in the direct clash against Ireland to secure a ticket to Slovakia, home to the final phase of the 2025 European Championship.
Italy, which will play only one match in this last qualifying window, could in reality already find itself arithmetically earlier on Friday 11th, the day of Ireland-Norway: in the event of success for the Norwegians, beaten 3-0 by Italy in Stavanger with Tommaso Baldanzi’s hat-trick, the Azzurrini would toast four days in advance. The top-placed teams from the nine groups and the three best runners-up will advance to the final phase; the remaining six runners-up will play a round-trip play-off for another three places.
The absolute novelty in Nunziata’s 26-man squad is Marco Palestra, defender born in 2005 for Atalanta. Mattia Viti, defender of Empoli, returns after more than a year and a half. The coach will not be able to count on the suspended Diego Coppola (Verona). The team will meet on the evening of Sunday 6 October at the Olympic Preparation Center in Tirrenia where, from the following day, the preparation for the match in Trieste will begin. A friendly test against Livorno (Serie D) is scheduled for Thursday 10 October, with kick-off at 3pm.
Goalkeepers: Sebastiano Desplanches (Palermo), Jacopo Sassi (Modena), Gioele Zacchi (Latina)
Defenders: Nicolò Bertola (Spezia), Giovanni Bonfanti (Pisa), Daniele Ghilardi (Hellas Verona), Michael Olabode Kayode (Fiorentina), Marco Palestra (Atalanta), Lorenzo Pirola (Olympiacos), Nicolò Savona (Juventus), Riccardo Turicchia (Catanzaro) , Mattia Viti (Empoli), Mattia Zanotti (Lugano)
Midfielders: Tommaso Baldanzi (Roma), Alessandro Bianco (Monza), Edoardo Bove (Fiorentina), Cesare Casadei (Chelsea), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna), Jacopo Fazzini (Empoli), Fabio Miretti (Genoa), Cher Ndour (Besiktas), Matteo Prati (Cagliari)
Attackers: Giuseppe Ambrosino (Frosinone), Francesco Pio Esposito (Spezia), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Luca Koleosho (Burnley)