Although they disappointed in the 2010 World Cup, Italy restored some of their pride by making an impressive run to the EURO 2012 finals, where they were unfortunately crushed 4-0 by a vastly superior Spanish side. However, the Azzurri were unable to follow up that success as they again crashed out at the group stages at last summer's World Cup, which effectively ended Cesare Prandelli's reign.
With former Juventus coach Antonio Conte at the helm, Italy's fortunes have improved and they have only lost one out of their games - a 1-0 friendly defeat to Portugal - since Conte's arrival. In terms of their EURO 2016 qualifying campaign, they have not yet secured their ticket to France, but are the only team in their group yet to suffer a loss, with five wins and three draws so far.
Azerbaijan
Interestingly, the last time the two sides met at Azerbaijan's home ground, it was the first time that the Eastern European nation were able to get a goal past the four-time World Cup winners. However, it was actually due to an embarrassing own goal by Giorgio Chiellini, who ended up scoring all three goals in a tense 2-1 win for his side, and he became the first man since Fernando Hierro for Spain in 1999 to have scored for both sides in a EURO qualifier.
Prior to then, Azerbaijan had met Italy twice and were outscored by six goal to nil. Still, despite being eliminated for qualifying, they could pose a tricky test for the visitors. They have won just one out of their past six games - a 2-0 win over fellow basement boys Malta - but have managed to secure three straight draws - two of these taking place against contenders Norway and Croatia. Given that, they will hope to do the same against another top-placed side. And under coach Robert Prosinečki, they are unbeaten in their last four matches, with one win and three draws against the aforementioned Malta, Norway, Croatia, and Bulgaria.
Italy
The race for the top two spots in Group H was really supposed to be Italy versus Croatia. However, they are currently in third, four points behind following an insipid 0-0 draw to Azerbaijan and then a surprise 2-0 loss to Norway. Additionally, they were deducted one point after some fans exhibited actions that would be highly offensive to Jews - namely carving a swastika in the middle of the pitch - prior to their 1-1 draw with Italy at the Stadion Poljud. So, with the Vatreni having quite a bit of work to do to secure a top two spot, Italy will hope to widen the gap over them and surprise packages Norway by defeating Azerbaijan, a team that have not really troubled them in the past.
Unfortunately, Conte will be without the services of combative midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who is currently serving a two-match ban. Another walking the suspension tightrope will be Manchester United's Matteo Darmian. In terms of attack, recently in-form striker Graziano Pelle, who currently is his team's top goal-scorer in qualifiers and has performed well with his club Southampton, will likely be chosen to lead the line. Despite struggling to 1-0 wins over Malta and Bulgaria, Italy have an excellent record in qualifying. They are currently unbeaten in their past 48 games, with 37 wins and 11 draws, and their last loss was a 3-1 defeat to France back on September 6, 2006.
Initially, the attack was predicted to be spearheaded by an interesting Pelle- Lorenzo Insigne combination, but the Napoli starlet had to pull of out of the squad due to a knee injury. And interestingly, despite appearing to have modified his behavior as of late, Mario Balotelli still continues to be snubbed by Conte, who recently admitted that even if the striker were not struggling with a muscular problem, he still would not have called him up.
In theory, this should represent an easy three points for the visitors, but Azerbaijan will be feeling some confidence after frustrating Norway and Croatia. As such, this could represent a banana peel for Italy, who will not be keen on dropping points as there are a total of three teams that could all possibly take the top two spots and they have a potentially tough match against Norway looming on the horizon.
Here's how Italy are looking ahead of the match versus Azerbaijan:
Will Italy move closer towards securing their ticket to EURO 2016, and more important, as group winners? Or will Azerbaijan manage to snatch a point?
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Match details, result and original broadcast info
Azerbaijan 1 - 3 Italy
October 10, 2015 12:00pmTofiq Bəhramov adına Respublika stadionu (Bakı (Baku))This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.
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