Switzerland has not beaten Italy for 31 years, but it is also undefeated in 2024 to date. Germany starts as favorites against a Denmark that had a good group stage.
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Italydefending champion, aspires to maintain its hegemony in its duel against Switzerland for a place in the quarterfinals of Euro 2024.
Swiss have won just eight of their previous 61 meetings with Italy. But they remain unbeaten this year and their only defeat in 2023 came in the final game of qualifying.
The match starts at 18:00 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.
How was the qualifying phase for Italy and Switzerland?
Italy has fond memories of Berlin, having beaten France on penalties in the 2006 World Cup final. At the same stadium, they also beat Austria 2-1 in the final of the 1936 Olympic Games.
To date, the Euro 2024 It has been a tough experience for the Azzurra, who conceded a goal 23 seconds into their first match against Albania (2-1), found themselves completely outmatched by Spain (1-0) and needed a last-gasp goal from Mattia Zaccagni, substitute for Italy, to save a 1-1 draw against Croatia and finish second in Group B.
Swiss opened with a 3-1 win over Hungary, before drawing 1-1 against Scotland and hosts Germany.
The last time they faced Italy was in the 2022 World Cup qualifying phase. Both games drew and the Swiss finished top of their group to qualify for the tournament in Qatar, as Italy lost to North Macedonia in the play-offs and were eliminated, the second consecutive failure for the Italians in the World Cup qualification.
The Swiss Yann Sommer, Ricardo Rodríguez, Remo Freuler, Noah Okafor, Michel Aebischer, Dan Ndoye, Dennis Zakaria, Silvan Widmer and Xherdan Shaqiri have played in the Italian Serie A.
By contrast, defender Federico Dimarco is the only member of the Italian team to have played in Switzerland, spending a season at Sion in 2017-18.
The winner will face England or Slovakia in the quarter-finals the July 6th in Dusseldorf.
The other tie on Saturday faces Germany, who start as favorites playing at home against Denmark at 9:00 p.m. local time in Dortmund.
What has the previous phase of Germany and Denmark been like?
The German national team, in the midst of a rebuilding process under young coach Julian Nagelsmann, is seeking redemption after its elimination in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and its fall in the round of 16 of the last European Championship. Despite these obstacles, Germany It trusts its history and the quality of its players to compete in the tournament.
In the group stage, Germany advanced as leaders thanks to a 1-1 draw against Switzerland in Frankfurt, with Niclas Füllkrug scoring on the final day of Group A. They had previously beaten Scotland 5-1 in their opening match and beaten Hungary 2-0. The team’s top scorers so far are Fullkrug and Jamal Musiala, both with two goals.
On the other hand, Denmarkcoached by Kasper Hjulmand, are looking to continue advancing in the tournament. At the last European Championship, they reached the semi-finals (their best performance since winning the title in 1992) and also qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (although they did not make it past the group stage).
However, in this edition, they had difficulties to advance, being escorts from england in Group C with three draws in as many gamesbut they managed to get away with a simple yellow card in their favour over Slovenia.
The Danes began their journey with a 1-1 draw against Slovenia, then repeated the score against England and closed their participation with a goalless draw against Serbia.
The winner of this confrontation will face the winner of the duel between Spain on July 5 in Stuttgart (Group B leader) and Georgia (third in Group F). On the same side of the table are also Portugal, Slovenia, France and Belgium.
