Like in September, November's fixture list sees Italy come up against two fairly recently-formed independent countries in North Macedonia, in 1993 following the breakup of Yugoslavia, and Ukraine, in 1991 after the USSR broke up.

It will be Italy's 5th meeting with North Macedonia, bringing back memories of the failure to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. After finishing the qualifying campaign 2nd behind Spain in 2016, the two group games ended 2-3 in Skopje and 1-1 in Torino. Instead, in 2022, it was a one-off play-off clash that saw the visitors win 1-0 in Palermo. In addition, that 3-2 win in Skopje in 2016 is the Azzurri's only success over North Macedonia (a comeback win through an Immobile brace and one from Belotti), a feat not yet achieved at home (two attempts).

The history of games with Ukraine meanwhile starts back in 1995. In total, the two nations have met each other nine times (seven wins and two draws, goals 17/4). With Leverkusen being used as a neutral pitch, previous meetings in this category speak of one win (in fact, in Hamburg, Germany, in the 2006 World Cup) and one draw (in February of the same year in a friendly in Lausanne). But considering games played on Ukrainian home soil, the history books show an even better record: three wins in three games, 6/1 the goals scored, all in Kiev. The first fixture dates back to 1995 (a Euro '96 qualifier), with the last game in Milan (12 September) decided by a Frattesi double (2-1).