England to confirm its supremacy and Italy to break its knot with North Macedonia
The England national team will be a guest on its Ukrainian counterpart at the Municipal Stadium in the Polish city of Wroclaw, while Italy (the defending champion) is looking forward to breaking its contract with North Macedonia, during the fifth round of the third group of the European Nations Cup qualifiers (Euro 2024).
The English national team sits at the top of the group standings with 12 points, with the full mark after winning all four of its previous matches, while the Ukraine national team occupies second place with 6 points, from only 3 matches, and Italy comes in third place with 3 points, from two matches, ahead by a difference. Goals against North Macedonia (from 3 matches) and the Malta national team is at the bottom of the standings with no points, after losing in the first four rounds.
The English national team is looking forward to continuing its wonderful start and continuing its control of Group C, which it began with a 2-1 victory over Italy, in their first confrontation since losing to the “Azzazzurri” on penalties in the final of the last edition (Euro 2020) at “Wembley” Stadium in the British capital, London. . The English team continued its strong performances by winning 2-0 over Ukraine in the second round, then 4-0 over Malta, and 7-0 over North Macedonia.
England heads to confront Ukraine with a powerful force led by the most prominent pillars that led it to the semi-finals of the last World Cup in Qatar, including the new Bayern Munich striker, Harry Kane.
Gareth Southgate summoned Saudi Al-Ettifaq midfielder Jordan Henderson, in addition to Manchester United defenseman Harry Maguire and Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips, despite not having used their services in their teams since the beginning of the season, while Chelsea winger Raheem Sterling was excluded.
Coach Gareth Southgate summoned midfield star Jude Bellingham, who has excelled this season with his new team, Real Madrid, and also called in Eddie Nketiah, the English striker from Arsenal, for the first time. For its part, the Ukraine national team, which is playing the match away from its home stadiums due to the ongoing war with Russia, is looking for its first victory over its English counterpart in nearly 14 years.
The Ukrainian national team achieved its only victory over England in October 2009, when it won 1-0 in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, as part of the qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
On the other hand, the English team achieved overwhelming superiority over Ukraine in the history of their meetings, achieving 5 victories during 8 confrontations that took place between them, while two meetings were drawn. During those previous eight matches, the England national team’s stars scored 13 goals, while conceding only 3 goals.
The Ukrainian national team aspires to a victory that will enhance its chances of qualifying for the finals hosted by Germany next year, after a 3-2 victory over North Macedonia and a 1-0 victory over Malta in the last two matches, recovering from the effects of its loss in its first meeting against England.
For its part, the Italian national team is engaged in a revenge confrontation against North Macedonia, as the blue team is looking to redeem itself from its 0-1 loss at home to the same competitor that prevented it from qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar 2022, for the second edition in a row.
Luciano Spalletti leads Italy in his first official match at the helm of the technical directorate, seeking revenge and exorcising the ghosts of the 2022 World Cup disaster. Italy has been going through something similar to an identity crisis for nearly two decades, as it failed to secure its ticket to the 2018 World Cup under the supervision of Gian Piero Ventura and 2022 under his leadership. Roberto Mancini, who succeeded before that in giving it the European Cup title in the summer of 2021, and Italy is no longer as intimidating to its opponents as it was in previous decades.
Spalletti will have a difficult start because he is required to untie the Macedonian rival, then face Ukraine three days later.
North Macedonia pulled off a huge surprise by defeating Italy 1-0 in Palermo in the continental playoff qualifier for the World Cup in Qatar.
The disaster of the goal scored by former Palermo club striker Aleksandar Trajkovski not only deprived Italy of the World Cup finals for the second time in a row, but also spoiled the achievement achieved by the national team by winning the last European Cup, which made its players national champions under coach Mancini.
But Spalletti urged his players and fans in his press conference to forget the bitterness of that result and focus on the future.
Paris Saint-Germain’s giant French goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, agreed with him, even if he admitted that the players were “still angry” because of their failure to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
Donnarumma said: “Revenge is not what really drives us, because we want to focus on ourselves, but we know how important this match is and what happened the last time we played.”
Italy travels to Skopje to play one of the two matches that may determine its fate in the continental qualifiers for the tournament scheduled for next summer in Germany, where they aim to defend the title.
Italy will play with Ukraine at the San Siro Stadium in Milan next Tuesday evening, hoping to gain 6 points that will give it second place in the group and place a foot in the finals, as the first and second places will qualify for the finals.
Spalletti, who led Napoli to win the league title for the first time since 1990, incited the stabilization of the ranks of the team, which seemed exhausted, long before Mancini left for Saudi Arabia to train its national team last month.
Veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who was appointed head of the Italian delegation, said: “I have a feeling that Italy found the right man at the right time. “I had the opportunity to spend the last few days with him and his staff talking about the ideas, feelings and values that, in my opinion, are what we need to achieve our goals.”
Spalletti excluded veteran captain Leonardo Bonucci (36 years old), Marco Verratti and Jorginho (both 31 years old), the three who played a key role in Italy’s victory in the last European Cup title.
The 64-year-old coach said that Paris Saint-Germain players Verratti and Arsenal Jorginho were excluded due to the lack of playing time with their teams, as the former did not play even a minute with the Parisian club, while the exclusion of former Juventus defense pole and current Union Berlin player Bonucci will be permanent because he is close to… The end of his football career.
It is possible that the other veteran, Lazio striker Ciro Immobile (33 years old), will wear the captain’s armband and hope to transfer his impressive level in the local league to the international arena.
Against North Macedonia, Italy will face Napoli player Elif Elmas and former Palermo striker Trajkovski, who was behind the elimination of the “Azzazzurri” from the World Cup qualifiers, but the newly born team (founded in 1993) is suffering in the qualifiers and is unlikely to reach the European Cup for the second time in its history. After qualifying for the 2021 edition.
Thuram celebrates scoring his first international goal with France (EBA)cut out
Coach Blagoja Milevski’s men are equal on points with Italy, but they suffered a crushing defeat by England 0-7 in the fourth stage, and they will play the Italy match without captain Stefan Ristovski, who refused the coach’s invitation.
Ristovski refuses to play under Milevski’s supervision, and Goran Pandev, the country’s best player ever, criticized the coach for not resigning immediately after the defeat last June at Wembley Stadium, and the country’s Football Association for not dismissing him.
Pandev told the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport: “Everyone expected change, and people demanded it, but the problem is much deeper and relates to people above the coach.”
He added: “They destroyed, after the World Cup and European Nations Cup qualifiers, the best generation of players we have produced in 30 years.”
The fifth round opened with France’s victory over its host, the Republic of Ireland, 2-0, achieving its fifth victory in 5 matches, to obtain the full mark in the second group with 15 points, with a large difference over its rival, the Netherlands (6 points), which in turn beat Greece 3-0.
In the fifth group, the Czech Republic failed to move away from the lead, as it tied with runner-up Albania at home, 1-1.
Spalletti hopes for a strong start with Italy (IPA) cut out
The Czech Republic has 8 points, one point behind Albania, while the Polish team was the biggest winner in this round, defeating the Faroe Islands with a brace from Barcelona’s Spanish striker Robert Lewandowski (73 from a penalty kick and 83 from a penalty kick).
The Polish team raised its score to 6 points. Finland retained the lead in Group Eight by defeating Kazakhstan 1-0, while its rivals Denmark and Slovenia continued to put pressure on it by defeating San Marino and Northern Ireland 4-0 and 4-2, respectively. Finland has 12 points, compared to 10 for Denmark and Slovenia.
Hungary took the lead in Group Seven by defeating its main rival, Serbia, in the latter’s home, 2-1. Hungary now has 10 points, compared to 7 for Serbia.
Spalletti begins his career with Italy, seeking revenge and exorcising the ghosts of the 2022 World Cup disaster… and Macedonian players rebel against the coach
2023-09-09 00:24:45
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