25 years after that great night in Bratislava when Andrea Pirlo’s brace against the Czech Republic secured Italy’s fourth of five European titles, Italy’s Under-21s are preparing to go back to Slovakia for the EUROs finals.

The manager, Carmine Nunziata, has chosen 28 players for the pre-tournament training, scheduled from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 May in Cesenatico. Then there will be a second meeting from Monday 2 June at the CPO in Tirrenia ahead of the journey to Slovakia scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday 8 June. The final list of the 23 Azzurrini headed to the EUROs will be given to UEFA by midnight on 4 June.

Parma defender Giovanni Leoni received his first call up to the Under-21s, while Spezia forward Francesco Pio Esposito (who scored the winner yesterday in Spezia’s home win to Catanzaro in the first leg of the Serie B play-off semi-finals) will join the group when he is finished with commitments with his club.

THE SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Sebastiano Desplanches (Palermo), Jacopo Sassi (Crotone), Gioele Zacchi (Latina);

Defenders: Diego Coppola (Hellas Verona), Daniele Ghilardi (Hellas Verona), Gabriele Guarino (Carrarese), Michael Kayode (Brentford), Giovanni Leoni (Parma), Marco Palestra (Atalanta), Lorenzo Pirola (Olympiacos), Matteo Ruggeri (Atalanta), Riccardo Turicchia (Juventus), Mattia Zanotti (Lugano);

Midfielders: Tommaso Baldanzi (Roma), Alessandro Bianco (Monza), Issa Doumbia (Venezia), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna), Jacopo Fazzini (Empoli), Cher Ndour (Fiorentina), Simone Pafundi (Udinese), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma), Matteo Prati (Cagliari), Cristian Volpato (Sassuolo);

Forwards: Giuseppe Ambrosino (Frosinone), *Francesco Pio Esposito (Spezia), Sebastiano Esposito (Empoli), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds United), Luca Koleosho (Burnley).

*will join the group when he is finished with his commitments with his club.

Staff – Head coach: Carmine Nunziata; Delegation lead: Giancarlo Antognoni; Team Manager: Gianfranco Serioli; Assistant Manager: Matteo Brighi and Christian Maggio; Fitness coaches: Vito Azzone and Luca Coppari; Goalkeeper coach: Fabrizio Ferron; Match analyst: Gianluca Mazziotti; Doctors: Daniele Mazza and Vincenzo Santoriello; Nutritionist. Maria Luisa Cravana; Physiotherapists: Tommaso Cannata, Giuliano Gepponi and Nicola Sanna; Secretary: Manfredi Martino.

THE AZZURRINI’S GROUP. Italy will face Spain, Slovakia and Romania in Group A. The Azzurrini, who will play all their group games in Trnava (the city 50km northeast of the capital Bratislava) will play their first match on Wednesday 11 June against Romania, before Slovakia on Saturday 14 and Spain on Tuesday 17. The three games are scheduled for 21:00 CEST and will all be live on Rai 2.

THE OPPOSITION. Slovakia, who are automatically qualified to the tournament as hosts, will be playing in the EUROs after an eight-year absence. They got their best finish (fourth place) in 2000, in the last tournament they hosted. Romania are in their fourth EUROs final in a row (before they only managed to get in once, in 1998): they did well in Group E, ending on 23 points ahead of Finland and Switzerland (-2) thanks to their seven wins, one draw and two losses. Ex-Rapid Bucharest and Romania player Daniel Pancu is in charge and he has selected several players that play their club football in Italy, including Udinese keeper Razvan Sava, Catanzaro midfielder Rares Ilie, AC Milan’s Matteo Dutu and Lecce’s Vlad Rafaila and Rares Burnete. Spain are equal with Italy ona  record number of titles held (5 trophies), and they lost the Final against England in the last edition of the competition. They were first in Group B with an almost-perfect record: nine wins and one draw (1-1 against Belgium, who finished second, nine points behind Spain). In Summer 2024, they won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. They are under ex-Albacete and Atletico Madrid defender Santi Denia, who is in his third two-year stint with the Under-21s after winning the Under-17 and Under-19 EUROs. He played in the 1996 final in Barcelona when Cesare Maldini’s Italy won on penalties against Spain.

DATE AND FORMAT OF THE TOURNAMENT. The EUROs finals will be played from 11 to 28 June across eight cities in Slovakia. The 16 finalists were divided into four groups of four teams. At the end of the finals, the group winner and runner-up will go into the quarter-finals (21 and 22 June) and from then on it will be a straight knock-out until the final (28 June), with added time and then penalties if it remains equal after ninety minutes.

THE GROUPS

GROUP A: Spain, Italy, Romania, Slovakia
GROUP B: Czech Republic, England, Germany, Slovenia
GROUP C: France, Georgia, Poland, Portugal
GROUP D: Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Ukraine

GROUP A MATCHES

MATCHDAY 1 (11 JUNE)

18:00 CEST Slovakia vs. Spain (Bratislava)
21:00 CEST Italy vs. Romania (Trnava, live o Rai 2)

MATCHDAY 2 (14 JUNE)

18:00 CEST Spain vs. Romania (Bratislava)
21:00 CEST Slovakia vs. Italy (Trnava, live on Rai 2)

MATCHDAY 3 (17 JUNE)

21:00 CEST Spain vs. Italy (Trnava, live on Rai 2)
21:00 CEST Romania vs. Slovakia (Bratislava)

QUARTER-FINALS (21-22 JUNE)

1st Group C vs. 2nd Group D
1st Group A vs. 2nd Group B
1st Group B vs. 2nd Group A
1st Group D vs. 2nd Group C

SEMI-FINALS (25 JUNE)

FINAL (28 JUNE)