LiveSoccerTV.com provides info to catch a mouth-watering friendly clash between Argentina and Italy on Friday, March 23rd.

Broadcast info

Who's playing: Argentina will kick off their World Cup preparations with a tantalizing friendly clash against Italy, who are eager to prove themselves after failing to qualify for this year's World Cup.

What time: Friday, March 23rd at 12:45 PST/15:45 EST/19:45 GMT/20:45 CET

What stadium: This match will be played at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, which seats up to 55.097 fans for domestic games and 53.000 fans for international fixtures.

Which channel:

 

Match details, result and original broadcast info

Argentina 2 - 0 Italy

March 23, 2018 3:45pmEtihad Stadium (Manchester)

This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.

Live TV coverage and streaming in United States

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Match Facts & Stats

  • This will be the 15th meeting (friendly and competitve) between Argentina and Italy and the first since August 2013
  • Italy haven't beaten Argentina since June 10, 1987 
  • However, they've won six of their last 14 meetings with Argentina (four wins, four draws)
  • The only scoreless draw between the Albiceleste and the Azzurri was on December 21 1989 during an international friendly

Preview

Italy shocked the world of football by failing to make it past a highly unfavored Sweden side in last year's playoffs, and thus the Azzurri will not be featuring at their first World Cup since 1958. Coach Gianpiero Ventura finally made way, as did the federation's president, and as of now, the team is under the tutelage of caretaker boss Luigi Di Biagio, who also coaches the u-21 side.

Di Biagio has managed to convince iconic shot-stopper Gianluigi Buffon to reverse his retirement decision, and defender Giorgio Chiellini had also been re-called out of retirment to feature here until getting injured during a match for Juventus. Interestingly enough, though, despite his solid form for Nice, there's still no room in this squad for Mario Balotelli, who hasn't played for the national team since the 2014 World Cup. With no World Cup to look forward to, this will definitely be a rebuilding period for the Azzurri as they look forward to trying to qualify for EURO 2020.

Meanwhile, Argentina will again have a chance to try to seal World Cup glory after coming so painfully close back in 2014. The Albiceleste didn't have the easiest run through qualifiers, but a brilliant hat-trick from the talismanic Lionel Messi against Ecuador was enough to earn them a spot in Russia, where they will take on Iceland, Croatia, and Nigeria.

Argentina surprisingly lost their last friendly of 2017 against the same Nigeria they will face in just a few months' time, but as we all know, anything can happen in a friendly game. That being said, Jorge Sampaoli's side will be certainly looking to kick off 2018 on the right footing by maintaing their strong run against Italy - a team they haven't lost to since 1987. To ensure this, Sampaoli has called up much of his stars, including Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain as well as of course skipper Messi, but there's no room in the team for Inter's Mauro Icardi despite his netting 22 goals in Serie A this season. Juventus's Paulo Dybala is another who failed to make the cut for both of Argentina's upcoming friendlies against Italy and Spain.

 

Match details, result and original broadcast info

Argentina 2 - 0 Italy

March 23, 2018 3:45pmEtihad Stadium (Manchester)

This match has ended. Below are the original Live broadcast details for this match.

Live TV coverage and streaming in United States

beIN SPORTS USA
beIN SPORTS en Español
fuboTV
beIN SPORTS CONNECT U.S.A.

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