Italy and Spain will go face to face this Thursday as the second round of European qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup kick off.
The game will take place at Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy and matches the two strongest squads of Group G. Both teams won in the first round of qualifiers as Spain beat Liechtenstein 8-0 and Italy beat Israel 1-3 away in Haifa.
When these two teams last met, the Italians beat Spain 2-0 in the round of 16 of the 2016 European Championship. Nonetheless, these squads have gone drastic changes since that meeting.
Both teams have new managers as Antonio Conte left the “Azurri” to coach Chelsea and and was replaced with Giam Piero Ventura, and Vicente Del Bosque retired from “La Roja” and was replaced with Julian Lopetegui.
The Spaniards will be longing to avenge their 2016 Euros defeat and hoping to give their new manager a second straight victory to help him ease into the position. A good result in the toughest away game of the group would undeniably raise their overall confidence for the rest of the qualifiers.
The referee for the match will be Felyx Byrch of Germany
Both Spain and Italy are tied with Albania atop Group G, with three points each. After beating Macedonia in the first round of the qualifiers Albania will now visit Liechtenstein and try to keep pace with whoever wins the match between Italians and Spaniards or, in case of a draw, take command of the Group.
The other match of the Group will see Israel travelling to Macedonia in a match between two teams that have no points.