As Italy prepare to take on Portugal in the two teams' last match before the players head on summer holiday, Antonio Conte will have to contend with a growing injury list. Prior to their EURO 2016 qualifying game against Croatia, the Azzurri were already missing stars like midfield duo Daniele De Rossi and Marco Veratti, as well as key defenders Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli, the former of whom was unable to feature in Juve's 3-1 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Unfortunately for the former Bianconeri tactician, the match against the Vatreni, which finished as a 1-1 draw under somewhat controversial circumstances cost him the availability of two more players. Captain and talismanic goalkeeper Gigi Buffon, who was already struggling with an elbow injury, suffered a nasty cut after a collision with striker Mario Mandzukic in an attempt to prevent Croatia's goal and will not feature after getting ten stitches on his right knee. And defender Lorenzo Di Silvestri, who sustained a serious knee ligament injury in the first half after trying to block Mateo Kovacic will be out for at least six months with an ACL tear.
Although their upcoming meeting with Portugal in Switzerland is just a friendly, Conte so far has yet to lose a single match since taking over last summer. In his nine games thus far, he has won five and has had to settle for a draw on the other four occasions, and this will be the first ever match for him against Portugal.
Meanwhile, his opponent on the tactician's bench, Fernando Santos has guided his team to the top of their EURO 2016 qualifying group. After a surprise loss to Albania on matchday one, Portugal bounced back with four straight wins to sit on top of Group I with 12 points. And unlike Conte, Santos will have pretty much a full-strength line-up to pick from in this eagerely anticipated friendly clash.
In their recent game against Armenia, Cristiano Ronaldo, as per usual, made sure he was the star of the evening with a hat-trick to earn all three points. However, on Tuesday evening, he will not be present on the pitch as he has been granted permission to miss the game. And of additional concern for his legions of fans and Portugal supporters is the fact that Portugal have a poor and frustrating record against Italy. The last time they were able to defeat the four-time World Cup champions was during a friendly meeting on December 22, 1976, when they powered past the Italians 2-1.
Since that day, the two teams have met 11 times, with the Azzurri winning ten out of those meetings. Still, with their growing injuries forcing Conte to likely modify his set-up, this will have Portugal feeling pretty confident of finally breaking their string of bad luck on Tuesday in Switzerland.
Make sure you do not miss out on this exciting friendly by bookmarking LiveSoccerTV.com's special page for Italy vs. Portugal for all broadcast info for wherever you call home!
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