European Football Championship 2012 / Italy

Italian starting line-up for the quarter-final against England. Front (from left to right): Montolivo , Marchisio , Pirlo , Abate , Cassano . Back (from left to right): Buffon , Bonucci , Balotelli , Barzagli , De Rossi , Balzaretti .

This article covers the Italian national football team at the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine . It was the eighth participation for Italy and since the finals were held with 16 teams from 1996 onwards, Italy has always been able to qualify. The only title win so far was achieved in the first finals in 1968 .

qualification

Italy completed the qualification for the European Championship in qualifying Group C .

Games

date	Venue	host	guest	Result	Goal scorers
09/03/2010	Tallinn ( EST )	Estonia	Italy	1: 2 (1: 0)	1: 0 Zenjov (31st), 1: 1 Cassano (60th), 1: 2 Bonucci (63rd)
07.09.2010	Florence	Italy	Faroe Islands	5: 0 (3: 0)	1-0 Gilardino (11th), 2-0 De Rossi (22nd), 3-0 Cassano (27th), 4-0 Quagliarella (81st), 5-0 Pirlo (90th)
10/08/2010	Belfast ( NIR )	Northern Ireland	Italy	0-0
10/12/2010	Genoa	Italy	Serbia	3-0
03/25/2011	Ljubljana ( SVN )	Slovenia	Italy	0: 1 (0: 0)	0: 1 Thiago Motta (73.)
06/03/2011	Modena	Italy	Estonia	3: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Rossi (21st), 2-0 Cassano , 3-0 Pazzini (68th)
02.09.2011	Tórshavn ( FRO )	Faroe Islands	Italy	0: 1	0: 1 Cassano (11th)
09/06/2011	Florence	Italy	Slovenia	1: 0 (0: 0)	1-0 Pazzini (85th)
07/10/2011	Belgrade ( SRB )	Serbia	Italy	1: 1 (1: 1)	0: 1 Marchisio (2nd), 1: 1 Ivanović (26th)
10/11/2011	Pescara	Italy	Northern Ireland	3: 0 (1: 0)	1-0, 2-0 Cassano (21st, 53rd), 3-0 McAuley (74th / ET)
↑ The game was canceled after six minutes because of riots by Serbian fans, in which, among other things, fireworks flew onto the field. Italy-Serbia canceled after rioting ; Announcement on uefa.com of October 12, 2010. It was rated 3-0 for Italy on October 29 by UEFA.

table

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Pt.
1	Italy	10	8th	2	0	20: 02	26th
2	Estonia	10	5	1	4th	15:14	16
3	Serbia	10	4th	3	3	13:12	15th
4th	Slovenia	10	4th	2	4th	11: 07	14th
5	Northern Ireland	10	2	3	5	09:13	09
6th	Faroe Islands	10	1	1	8th	06:26	04th

The top scorer was Antonio Cassano with six goals.

preparation

The Italian team was supposed to play two test matches immediately before the European Championship: The international match against Luxembourg scheduled for May 29 in Parma was canceled due to the earthquake in the Emilia-Romagna region . On June 1st they lost 3-0 to Russia in Zurich . This is the only test match between two EM participants, which means that they have violated § 2.08 of the regulations, according to which "no more games may be played from one month before the start of the final between teams that have qualified for the final."

Games of Italy

EM preliminary round

At the draw, Italy, Ireland and Croatia were drawn to the world and European champions Spain, who were set as the group head of group C. The record against Ireland is positive (7 wins and 2 draws and 2 defeats before the European Championship), against Croatia (1 win, 2 draws, 3 defeats before the European Championship) and against Spain positive (10 wins, 11 draws, 8 defeats before) the EM). The last time Italy and Ireland met on June 7, 2011, the Irish won 2-0. The last time they played against Spain was on August 10, 2011 and won 2-1. They met three times in the European Championship finals and only scored a goal in these games in 1988, when Italy won 1-0 in the preliminary round . At the EM 2008 the penalty shoot-out had to decide in the quarter-finals, whereby the Spaniards prevailed. The last game against Croatia on August 16, 2006, Italy lost 2-0. At the European Championship finals, both have not met before.

Preliminary group C:

All games took place in Poland .

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Spain	3	2	1	0	006: 100	+5	07th
2.	Italy	3	1	2	0	004: 200	+2	05
3.	Croatia	3	1	1	1	004: 300	+1	04th
4th	Ireland	3	0	0	3	001: 900	−8	00

Sun., June 10, 2012, 6 p.m. in Gdansk
Spain	-	Italy	1: 1 (0: 0)
Thursday, June 14, 2012, 6:00 p.m. in Poznan
Italy	-	Croatia	1: 1 (1: 0)
Mon., June 18, 2012, 8:45 p.m. in Poznan
Italy	-	Ireland	2: 0 (1: 0)

Knockout round

Italy finished second in the group and met England, the winners of Group D , in the quarter-finals in Kiev on June 24th . Both have played against each other 22 times, with nine Italian wins, six draws and seven defeats. They only met once in a placement game , in the game for third place at the 1990 World Cup, which Italy won 2-1. At a European Championship, the two had previously only met in the group stage in 1980, with Italy winning 1-0. The last game before the European Championship between the two took place on March 27, 2002 in Leeds and was won 2-1 by Italy.

In the semi-finals, Italy met the German team, against whom they had only played twice at European Championships, in 1988 (1: 1) and 1996 (0: 0) in the preliminary round. The last game between the two also ended in a draw on February 9, 2011 (1-1). So far Italy has not lost a game against Germany in tournaments. The overall balance before the European Championship also spoke for Italy: 14 wins, 9 draws and 7 defeats, 45:34 goals. Italy last lost to Germany on June 21, 1995 (0-2). After the renewed success against Germany, the opening game against defending champions Spain was repeated in the final. Both of them have never faced each other in the final of an EM or World Cup. By reaching the finals, Italy already qualified for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 , as final opponents Spain have already qualified as world champions.

Quarter-finals Sun., June 24, 2012, 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST)
England	-	Italy	0: 0 a.d., 2: 4 i. E.
Semi-finals Thursday, June 28, 2012, 8:45 p.m. in Warsaw
Germany	-	Italy	1: 2 (0: 2)
Final Sun., July 1, 2012, 9:45 p.m. in Kiev (8:45 p.m. CEST )
Spain	-	Italy	4: 0 (2: 0)

Squad

On May 29, 2012, national coach Cesare Prandelli named the final squad for the 2012 European Football Championship . The most experienced players were goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo , who had already played in 2004 and 2008 . On May 28, 2012 it was announced that Domenico Criscito could possibly be involved in a betting scandal. The Italian Football Association then announced that Criscito would not be nominated for the European Championship. Due to an injury, Prandelli had to do without striker Giuseppe Rossi . Players like Giampaolo Pazzini and Andrea Ranocchia were included in the extended squad, but were not nominated for the final squad. Most of the squad played in Serie A , with Salvatore Sirigu , Thiago Motta (both Paris Saint-Germain / Ligue 1 ) and Mario Balotelli ( Manchester City / Premier League ) only three players were under contract abroad.

Jersey no.	player	society	International matches	Gates	Date of birth	EM games	Sp.	Gates	red	G / R	yellow
goalkeeper
01	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus Turin	120	00	01/28/1978	3 (2004), 4 (2008)	6th				1
14th	Morgan De Sanctis	SSC Naples	005	00	03/26/1977
12	Salvatore Sirigu	Paris Saint-Germain	002	00	01/12/1987
Defense
07th	Ignazio Abate	AC Milan	005	00	11/12/1986		3
06th	Federico Balzaretti	US Palermo	012	00	December 6, 1981		4th				1
15th	Andrea Barzagli	Juventus Turin	033	00	05/08/1981	1 (2008)	4th				2
19th	Leonardo Bonucci	Juventus Turin	020th	02	05/01/1987		6th				2
03	Giorgio Chiellini	Juventus Turin	055	02	08/14/1984	3 (2008)	5				1
02	Christian Maggio	SSC Naples	019th	00	02/11/1982		3				2
04th	Angelo Ogbonna	Torino FC	003	00	May 23, 1988
midfield
16	Daniele De Rossi	AS Roma	078	10	07/24/1983	3 (2008)	6th				2
22nd	Alessandro Diamanti	Bologna FC	004th	00	05/02/1983		3
13	Emanuele Giaccherini	Juventus Turin	002	00	05/05/1985		2
08th	Claudio Marchisio	Juventus Turin	026th	01	01/19/1986		6th
18th	Riccardo Montolivo	AC Florence	037	01	January 18, 1985		4th				1
05	Thiago Motta	Paris Saint-Germain	013	01	08/28/1982		5				2
23	Antonio Nocerino	AC Milan	013	00	04/09/1985		2
21st	Andrea Pirlo	Juventus Turin	089	10	05/19/1979	2 (2004), 3 (2008)	6th	1
attack
09	Mario Balotelli	Manchester City	014th	04th	08/12/1990		6th	3			2
17th	Fabio Borini	AS Roma	001	00	03/29/1991
10	Antonio Cassano	AC Milan	035	10	07/12/1982	3 (2004), 4 (2008)	6th	1
11	Antonio Di Natale	Udinese Calcio	042	12	10/13/1977	2 (2008)	5	1
20th	Sebastian Giovinco	Parma FC	010	00	01/26/1987		2
Trainer
	Cesare Prandelli				08/19/1957		6th

Awards

Captain Buffon, midfielders Daniele De Rossi and Andrea Pirlo and striker Mario Balotelli have been nominated for the UEFA All-Star Team of the tournament's 23 best players.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ flf.lu:Annulation match Italie - Luxembourg, May 29, 2012 ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
2. ↑ Regulations of the UEFA European Football Championship .
3. ↑ FIGC.it: Consegnata all'Uefa la lista dei 23 giocatori convocati per gli Europei ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
4. ↑ Italy throws suspicious player from EM squad , Spiegel.de. Retrieved May 28, 2012.