Photo: Collected
Defending champion Italy aims to continue its dominance over Switzerland to reach the quarterfinals of the European Championship on Saturday (29 June).
Switzerland hasn’t beaten Italy for 31 years and has only eight wins from their previous 61 meetings. But the Swiss are unbeaten so far this year and their only loss in 2023 came in the last game of qualifying.
Italy has fond memories of playing at Berlin’s Olympiastadion after beating France on penalties in the 2006 World Cup final in its last game in the stadium, where it also defeated Austria 2-1 in the final of the 1936 Olympic Games.
Switzerland and Italy faced each other in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. They drew both games and the Swiss finished top of the group to qualify. Italy lost to North Macedonia in the playoffs and missed out. It was the Italians’ second successive failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Switzerland players Yann Sommer, Ricardo Rodríguez, Remo Freuler, Noah Okafor, Michel Aebischer, Dan Ndoye, Dennis Zakaria, Silvan Widmer and Xherdan Shaqiri have all played in Italy’s Serie A.
In contrast, defender Federico Dimarco is the only member of Italy’s squad to have played in Switzerland, spending one season at Sion in 2017-18.
The winner will face England or Slovakia in the quarterfinals in Düsseldorf on July 6.
Messenger/Sourov
