Football World Cup 2014 / Italy

This article covers the Italian national football team at the 2014 World Cup . Italy took part in the finals for the 18th time and in a finals in South America for the fourth time . At the last finals in South America in 1978, Italy finished fourth. Italy were eliminated in the preliminary round for the second time in a row.

qualification

Italy played in European qualifying Group B . Opponents were Denmark , the Czech Republic , Bulgaria , and for the first time in an international match Armenia and Malta . Italy were unbeaten with six wins and four draws and qualified as the second European team for the finals on September 10th. In the following two games, several regular players were not used. The second-placed Danish team could not qualify as the worst runners-up in the group for the playoff games of the runners-up.

Group stage

Pl.	team	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Italy	10	6th	4th	0	019: 900	+10	22nd
2.	Denmark	10	4th	4th	2	017:120	+5	16
3.	Czech Republic	10	4th	3	3	013: 900	+4	15th
4th	Bulgaria	10	3	4th	3	014: 900	+5	13
5.	Armenia	10	4th	1	5	012:130	−1	13
6th	Malta	10	1	0	9	005:280	−23	03

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goal scorers for Italy
07.09.2012	Sofia ( BUL )	Bulgaria	-	Italy	2: 2 (1: 2)	Osvaldo (36th, 40th)
09/11/2012	Modena	Italy	-	Malta	2: 0 (1: 0)	Destro (5th), Peluso (90th + 2)
October 12, 2012	Yerevan ( ARM )	Armenia	-	Italy	1: 3 (1: 1)	Pirlo (11./Elfm.), De Rossi (64.), Osvaldo (82.)
10/16/2012	Milan	Italy	-	Denmark	3: 1 (2: 1)	Montolivo (34th), de Rossi (37th), Balotelli (54th)
03/26/2013	Attard	Malta	-	Italy	0: 2 (0: 2)	Balotelli (8th, 45th / Elf)
06/07/2013	Prague ( CZE )	Czech Republic	-	Italy	0-0
06.09.2013	Palermo	Italy	-	Bulgaria	1: 0 (1: 0)	Gilardino (38th)
09/10/2013	Turin	Italy	-	Czech Republic	2: 1 (0: 1)	Chiellini (51st), Balotelli (54th / Elf)
10/11/2013	Copenhagen ( DNK )	Denmark	-	Italy	2: 2 (1: 1)	Osvaldo (28th), Aquilani (90th + 1)
October 15, 2013	Naples	Italy	-	Armenia	2: 2 (1: 1)	Florenzi (24th), Balotelli (76th)

Cesare Prandelli used a total of 40 players in the 10 games. No player took part in all the games. Andrea Pirlo played most of the games (9 out of 10) . The top scorer was Mario Balotelli with five goals, but he was only used in five games. Ten other players contributed the rest. On October 11, 2013, Gianluigi Buffon was the record international player with his 137th international match against Denmark. On September 10, he had already set Fabio Cannavaro's record . With Lorenzo Insigne , only one player had his first appearance in the senior national team in the qualifying matches.

preparation

Test matches:

• 0March 5, 2014 in Madrid against world and European champions Spain : 0: 1
• May 31, 2014 in London against Ireland : 0-0
• 0June 4, 2014 in Perugia against Luxembourg : 1: 1 (goalscorer for Italy: Marchisio / 8.)

Squad

A preliminary list of 30 players had to be submitted to FIFA by May 13, 2014. The final list of 23 players had to be received by FIFA by June 2, 2014 at the latest.

The following is Italy's squad for the World Cup. Four players were taken into account with whom Italy won the World Cup in 2006 , but apart from Andrea Barzagli and five others, they were also part of the squad that was eliminated in the preliminary round in 2010 .

Antonio Mirante traveled with the national team to the first training camp in preparation for the World Cup, but was not part of the 30-man squad. However, he initially took the flag to Brazil because Salvatore Sirigu was suffering from a rib injury. Riccardo Montolivo broke his leg in the friendly against Ireland and could therefore not be considered for the World Cup. Due to long injuries during the season, Giuseppe Rossi was also not included.

No.	player	society	International matches *	Länderspiel- gates *	Date of birth	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (total)	World Cup goals (total)
goalkeeper
01	Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus Turin M	140	00	January 28, 1978	2	0	0	0	0	1998, 2002, 2006, 2010	12	0
13	Mattia Perin	CFC genoa	000	00	November 10, 1992	0	0	0	0	0
12	Salvatore Sirigu	Paris Saint-Germain M.	008th	00	January 12, 1987	1	0	0	0	0
Defense
07th	Ignazio Abate	AC Milan	020th	01	November 2nd 1986	1	0	0	0	0
15th	Andrea Barzagli	Juventus Turin M	047	00	May 8, 1981	3	0	0	0	0	2006	2	0
19th	Leonardo Bonucci	Juventus Turin M	037	02	May 1, 1987	1	0	0	0	0	2010	0	0
03	Giorgio Chiellini	Juventus Turin M	068	04th	August 14, 1984	3	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
04th	Matteo Darmian	Torino FC	001	00	2nd December 1989	3	0	0	0	0
02	Mattia De Sciglio	AC Milan	011	00	October 20, 1992	1	0	1	0	0
20th	Gabriel Paletta	Parma FC	002	00	February 15, 1986	1	0	0	0	0
midfield
14th	Alberto Aquilani	AC Florence	035	05	7th July 1984	0	0	0	0	0
06th	Antonio Candreva	Lazio Rome	019th	00	February 28, 1987	2	0	0	0	0
16	Daniele De Rossi	AS Roma	095	15th	July 24, 1983	2	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	3	1
08th	Claudio Marchisio	Juventus Turin M	044	03	January 19, 1986	3	1	0	0	1	2010	2	0
05	Thiago Motta	Paris Saint-Germain M.	020th	01	August 28, 1982	3	0	0	0	0
18th	Marco Parolo	Parma FC	004th	00	January 25, 1985	2	0	0	0	0
21st	Andrea Pirlo	Juventus Turin M	109	13	May 19, 1979	3	0	0	0	0	2006, 2010	8th	1
23	Marco Verratti	Paris Saint-Germain M.	006th	01	5th November 1992	2	0	0	0	0
attack
09	Mario Balotelli	AC Milan	030th	12	August 12, 1990	3	1	2	0	0
10	Antonio Cassano	Parma FC	037	10	July 12, 1982	2	0	0	0	0
11	Alessio Cerci	Torino FC	012	00	July 23, 1987	1	0	0	0	0
17th	Ciro Immobile	Torino FC	002	00	February 2, 1990	2	0	0	0	0
22nd	Lorenzo Insigne	SSC Naples P	005	01	4th June 1991	1	0	0	0	0

(*) only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given.

1. ↑ M = The club became champions of its country in the 2013/14 season, P = The club won the cup in the 2013/14 season

Finals

Group stage

Manaus Recife natal Mangaratiba

Venues (red) and quarters (blue)

When the final round was drawn on December 6, 2013, Italy was allocated to Pot 4 with the unseeded European teams in October 2013 based on its placement in the FIFA world rankings and then allocated to Pot 2 and then specifically to a group with a seeded South American team to be drawn. Through this process Italy got into Group D with Uruguay. England and Costa Rica were also drawn. This was the first group at a World Cup with three ex-world champions. Italy last played against Uruguay in the third place match at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup , with Italy winning the penalty shootout 3-2 after a 2-2 win after extra time. Of nine games before the World Cup against Uruguay, Italy won two, lost three and four ended in a draw. The last time they met at a World Cup was in 1990 in the round of 16, with Italy winning 2-0. In the preliminary round in 1970 the two separated 0-0 and together they reached the quarter-finals. The last competitive match between Italy and England was the quarter-finals of the Euro 2012, in which Italy won the penalty shootout 4-2 after a goalless outcome. On August 15, 2012, there was another friendly game, which was lost to England 2-1. The previously only World Cup game between the two teams was the game for third place in 1990, which Italy won 2-1. In a total of 24 matches before the World Cup, there were 9 wins for Italy, 7 draws and 8 wins for England. There was only one friendly match against Costa Rica, which was won 1-0 on June 11, 1994 in preparation for the World Cup finals.

The team quarters and training facilities were the Portobello Resort & Safari in Mangaratiba .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Costa Rica	4: 1	7th
2	Uruguay	4: 4	6th
3	Italy	2: 3	3
4th	England	2: 4	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 6:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. CEST) in Manaus, England - Italy 1: 2 (1: 1)
  
• Friday, June 20, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Recife Italy - Costa Rica 0: 1 (0: 1)
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Natal Italy - Uruguay 0: 1 (0: 0)
  

Italy had only played once before, on June 19, 2013 in the Confed Cup preliminary round, in Recife , but neither in Manaus nor Natal.

Sports impact

Italy fell five places from 9th to 14th in the FIFA World Ranking .

Claudio Marchisio was suspended for one game because he was sent off in the last group game. Since Italy were eliminated, the suspension had to be served for the next official international match, the qualification for the Euro 2016. In addition, the official Aldo Esposito was banned for six games because of multiple unsportsmanlike conduct towards match officials.

Resignations

• Cesare Prandelli resigned as national coach after the World Cup. He was succeeded by Antonio Conte . Andrea Pirlo , who announced before the World Cup that he would end his national team career after the World Cup, was persuaded by Conte to continue.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Regulations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup ™, para. 29 List of players, rest time, preparatory phase
2. ↑ fifa.com: Italy with Balotelli and Immobile for the World Cup ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Barzagli missed the Italians' World Cup test
4. ↑ Italy: World Cup out for Montolivo
5. ↑ List of players / list of joueurs FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 (as of May 16, 2014, updated after the games against Ireland on May 31, 2014 and Luxembourg on June 4, 2014
6. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
7. ↑ fifa.com: "Decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on World Cup cases"
8. ↑ fifa.com: "Withdrawal from resignation: Pirlo is still available to Italy" ( Memento of the original from April 2, 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.  

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All qualifying matches of Italy