North Macedonia vs Italy tips: Hosts to trouble the Azzurri again
North Macedonia vs Italy
Luciano Spalletti will make his first appearance as Italy's head coach in Skopje, against the team that kept the Azzurri out of the Qatar World Cup.
Date, Kick-off time and TV coverage
European Championship qualifier Group C, Saturday September 9, kick-off 19:45, live on Viaplay UK
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North Macedonia vs Italy betting preview
The Squadra Azzurra will play away against North Macedonia on Saturday night in Group C of the UEFA European Championship qualifiers, which will be held in Germany next year.
This will be the third time these two teams have met, and each team has won once, drawn once, and scored four goals each. The head-to-head record is perfectly even.
Italy won the only previous match against North Macedonia in North Macedonia, 3-2 in October 2016. However, North Macedonia won the famous 1-0 match in Palermo, Italy, in March 2022, in the World Cup playoff.
The hosts are not in a good position in the current qualifying campaign. They have only three points after three games and the worst defence in the group, having conceded 11 goals.
Malta, who have only won one game in the qualifiers so far, managed to score against the team led by Blagoja Milevski. They won that game 2-1. However, they then lost to Ukraine 2-3 at home and to England 0-7 away.
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After their historic victory against Italy, North Macedonia has only won four games, both friendly and official, all against weaker opponents: two wins against Gibraltar, one against Malta, and one against the Faroe Islands.
It is worth mentioning that North Macedonia has scored in each of their last six games.
This will be Italy's third match in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. The defending European champions lost their first match at home to England (1-2), but then won their second match in Malta (2-0).
Italy have not been playing well recently, losing three of their last five games in all competitions, including their last two under manager Roberto Mancini.
The previous manager left a few weeks before the current international break to take over as manager of the Saudi Arabia national team. This left the Italians in a hurry to find a replacement.
Luciano Spalletti, the man who won the Scudetto with Napoli last season, has been chosen to make his debut in a crucial game. The Azzurri, who need positive results in the double against North Macedonia and Ukraine, have no room for error.
Spalletti made a few changes to the starting lineup for his first match as Italy coach, dropping regular starters Leonardo Bonucci, Marco Verratti, and Jorginho.
