Italy’s poor defense is the biggest threat to qualifying for Euro 2024

The Italian national team faces the risk of not qualifying for Euro 2024, as it needs to score at least 4 points in the last two rounds of the European qualifiers in order to secure passage, but the greatest danger to the Azzurri’s qualification is the poor and greatly weakened defense line.

The Italian national team is engaged in a very important confrontation against the North Macedonia national team in the ninth round of the third group competitions in the European qualifiers for the Euro 2024 tournament, on Friday evening (9:45 occupied Jerusalem time), and it needs to achieve victory in order to reach the 13th point. In second place, tied with the Ukrainian national team.

Because of Italy’s superiority over Ukraine in the first leg (2-1), the lead on goal difference, and the Ukrainian national team not playing a match in this round due to rest, Italy will need a draw against Ukraine in the final round of qualifiers in order to qualify directly from the group.

But above all, the Italian coach, Luciano Spalletti, must solve the clear defense problems that did not begin during his reign, but rather began at the beginning of 2023 specifically, as the defense of the “Azzurri” team witnessed a significant decline and is no longer that strong line that contributes to making the Italian team’s victories. .

In the year 2023, the Italian national team played eight friendly and official matches, in which it conceded 11 goals, which is a very high tally for the “Azzuri” defense line, whose fans have always been accustomed to strength, solidity, and the difficulty of penetrating and scoring against it.

Even in the matches of 2022, the Italian national team’s defense was not in better shape than in 2023, as in the 11 matches it played, between friendly and official, it conceded 16 goals, which confirms the gradual decline of the defense line, which also translated poorly in the qualifying group for the Euro. 2024”, with Italy conceding seven goals in 6 matches so far. Will Italy’s declining and poor defense be a reason for the failure of direct qualification to the “Euro 2024” tournament?