Italy - Group E
Efficient, rather than spectacular, the Italian qualified for Euro 2016 with the minimum of fuss, remaining unbeaten throughout their qualification campaign. Can Antonio Conte bow out with his head held high in his last major tournament as Italian manager?
Get to know: Italy
Italy were always in control of Group H during qualification, although they made hard work of putting away some of the weaker teams in their pool, scraping past bottom placed Malta with two unconvincing 1-0 victories. Now the challenge gets a lot harder and it remains to be seen whether Italy will be able to turn on the style when it really matters in France this summer.
In the group stages, they won 7 games, drew 3 and lost 0, scoring 16 goals, conceding 7 and ending up with a +9 goal difference.
In the draw for the main event, Italy were placed in Group E, alongside Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Belgium.
Fixtures:
June 13 vs. Belgium 7pm – Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon
June 17 vs. Sweden 1pm – Stadium Municipal, Toulouse
June 22 vs. Republic of Ireland 7pm – Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille
Goal scorers:
During qualification, the Italy scored 15 goals
Their goal scorers were:
- Graziano Pellè (3)
- Antonio Candreva (2)
- Giorgio Chiellini (2)
- Éder (2)
- Leonardo Bonucci (1)
- Matteo Darmian (1)
- Daniele De Rossi (1)
- Stephan El Shaarawy (1)
- Alessandro Florenzi (1)
- Simone Zaza (1)
- Own goals (1)
Qualification Stat Truths:
- Faced shots the second-least frequently: 5.5 per game.
- Scored in every qualifying match.
- Allowed the lowest percentage of opponent shots from inside their area of any qualifier with 34.5%.
- Faced highest percentage of shots in the first half of matches of any side in qualifying (65.5%).
- Only conceded one second half goal during qualifying – the 14.3% of goals conceded that this represents is the lowest of any side at the finals.
- Second-worst shot conversion in the second half of matches of any side at the finals (8.6%).
- Three of the seven goals they conceded during qualifying came in the opening 15 minutes – at 42.9% this is the highest of any team at the finals.
- One of two sides to see four opponents sent off during qualifying.
All data based on Italy’s Euro 2016 qualification campaign. Courtesy of the Press Association.