Key events
Fun fact: This is Italy’s first match in this city and stadium since they beat France on penalties in the 2006 World Cup final. It would be no great surprise to see this game decided by spot-kicks too.
Round of 16: match-by-match analysis
The first knockout stage has several intriguing matches, including Spain against Georgia and France v Belgium, writes Jonathan Wilson …
Today’s match officials
-
Referee: Szymon Marciniak
-
Referee’s assistants: Tomasz Listkiewicz and Adam Kupsik
-
Fourth official: Facundo Tello
-
Video assistant referee: Facundo Tello
Penalty shootouts
Is anyone’s record worse than England’s? Can any team better Germany’s habit of success? Alex Reid looks at the numbers …
Those teams: Crikey. Luciano Spalletti makes no fewer than six changes to the team that left it late against Croatia. Gianluca Mancini comes in for the suspended Riccardo Calafiori, while there are also starts for Stephan El Shaarawy, Gianluca Scamacca, Federico Chiesa, Nicolo Fagioli, and Bryan Cristante.
There’s only one change to the Swiss side that lined up against Germany last time out. Martin Vargas is in for Silvan Widmar, who joins Calafiori on the Uefa Naughty Step.
Switzerland v Italy line-ups
Switzerland: Sommer, Akanji, Rodriguez, Schar, Freuler, Xhaka, Rieder, Aebischer, Embolo, Vargas, Ndoye.
Subs: Stergiou, Elvedi, Zakaria, Okafor, Steffen, Mvogo, Zuber, Zesiger, Sierro, Duah, Kobel, Shaqiri, Jashari, Amdouni.
Italy: Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian; Barella, Fagioli, Cristante; Chiesa, Scamacca, El Shaarawy
Subs: Buongiorno, Gatti, Frattesi, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Raspadori, Vicario, Bellanova, Retegui, Zaccagni, Cambiaso, Folorunsho, Meret, Dimarco.
Italy: While many Italians were relieved to squeeze past Croatia, their national team manager Luciano Spalletti still feels he has more to prove at Euro 2024. Nicky Bandini reports …
Early team news
Mainz right-back Silvan Widmar sits this one out through suspension and Swiss manager Murat Yakin is likely to call on Leonidas Stergiou, who plies his trade with Stuttgart, in his place.
Booked twice during the group stages, Liverpool target Riccardo Calafiori misses out for Italy, with Gianluca Mancini likely to step up in his absence. Left-back Federico Dimarco is out with a calf injury and could be replaced by Matteo Darmian, who featured in all three of Italy’s group games.
Round of 16: Switzerland v Italy
Berlin Olympiastadion is the venue for the first of the Round of 16 games between Switzerland and Italy, who meet for the third time since the holders swatted the Swiss aside in the group stages en route to winning the last Euros. Reporting on that match for the Guardian, Jonathan Liew said “this Italy team has been the revelation of the tournament so far” but four years on the current iteration of the Azzurri has been comparatively unimpressive. They have not, however, lost against Switzerland in any of their past 11 meetings in all competitions.
The Swiss emerged from Group A unbeaten but had to settle for second place behind Germany after Niclas Fullkrug’s late equaliser denied them victory against the Euro 2024 hosts. Having drawn twice with Italy in qualification for the last World Cup and largely impressed so far in this tournament, they will fancy their chances of notching a rare victory over Luciano Spalletti’s side today. Kick-off in Berlin is at 5pm (BST) but we’ll have plenty of team news and build-up in the meantime.
