Italy vs Albania

Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park is the venue as Italy take on Albania in their opening Euro 2024 contest.

Italy’s title defense commences with a must-win fixture against Group B minnows Albania following an impressive six-game sequence in the build-up to the tournament (W4, D2). Four clean sheets across their last five internationals bode well for the Italians’ bid to kick off a third consecutive Euro tournament with a win ‘to nil’ after dispatching Belgium and Turkey in the past two editions. Head coach Luciano Spalletti lost two significant defenders ahead of the competition, with Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini withdrawing from the squad with injuries. Their absence could hurt Italy’s plan to uphold a stunning trend of conceding just once across their last six group-stage Euro games (W5, L1). But a perfect four-game H2H record against Albania (W4) should settle Gli Azzurri’s nerves.

In the meantime, Albania punched above their weight to qualify for their second Euro tournament and first since 2016, finishing atop their highly competitive qualifying group ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland (W4, D3, L1). After losing both March friendlies without scoring, the Albanians have regained confidence with back-to-back wins against Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein, netting precisely three goals on each occasion. Sylvinho’s side impressed defensively during the qualifying cycle, conceding just four goals in eight matches, and will be keen to continue in a similar vein in Germany. Chances are they will, at least considering they’ve capitulated more than once per game in just one of their last 15 internationals. Finding the net could be problematic, given they’ve bagged just one goal in four previous meetings with Italy.