Seven goals scored, only one conceded, 264 minutes with a clean sheet (and still going), and three wins from three matches. These are the impressive stats that the Under-21s have recorded so far in their 2027 European Championship qualifying campaign. Tomorrow, the Azzurrini will get back to action at the Giovanni Zini Stadium in Cremona for matchday four: the match against Armenia (18:15 CEST), the team still on zero points in the group, serves as a key opportunity to keep full points and head into November’s head-to-head clash in Poland with twelve points in the standings.

BALDINI AND MARIANUCCI. “The team has trained really well,” said Silvio Baldini on the day before the match. “We have a team of incredibly talented and incredible boys who want to work together and play together. They’re mature, but fully aware that achieving their goals requires dedication and passion. I feel calm and very confident, but at the same time, we have to start all over again, without thinking about the Cesena match against Sweden. We can’t afford to play badly; we have to deliver at our best against everyone.” Following the coach’s lead, Luca Marianucci added, “The praise for the win in Cesena is nice, but we’ve had to move past them. We’re looking ahead, picking up where we left off.”

DEFENCE AND ROTATION. Italy’s strong statistics are a testament to their defence, where Marianucci is both a technical and charismatic leader. He and Lipani are the only two to have played for every minute of these European Championship qualifiers (270’). Marianucci explained: “Of course, part of the credit lies with the defence, but I always say that the player who sets the tempo of attack and defence is the forward. If we’ve conceded very few goals. It's because the entire team works well together.” Baldini continued to highlight this even when discussing squad selection: “In this team, rotation doesn’t exist; you can’t talk about rotation. We are a close-knit team that genuinely cares for each other, and everyone is important. Especially now with five substitutions available, football is no longer about just the eleven players: it’s about the sixteen.

ARMENIA. The team, led by Armen Gyulbudaghyants (who led the senior national team in 2018), come into this match following three losses to Sweden, Poland, and North Macedonia, conceding a total of nine goals. This will be the third head-to-head clash, after the two games in the 2021 qualifiers, both ending in victories for Italy. In Yerevan on October 14, 2019, it ended 1-0 (Scamacca), and a month later in Catania, Italy won 6-0 (2 Kean, Pinamonti, Scamacca, Zanellato, Del Prato).

CREMONA. The Under-21s return to Cremona after 27 years, looking to extend a perfect record that so far includes three wins from three matches. The first came on April 20, 1983, in a 2-0 friendly victory over Spain, with goals from Roberto Mancini and Massimo Mauro, a match that also marked the U21 debut of local talent Gianluca Vialli, then one of Mondonico’s standout players at Serie B side Cremonese (he came on in the 65th minute for Giordano). Two more 1–0 wins followed against Switzerland, on October 15, 1992, and October 9, 1998, with goals from Vieri and Pirlo. 

SHADES OF AZZURRO. In the morning, Italy U21 team delegate Giancarlo Antognoni, together with Enrico Demarchi, Vice President of the Football Museum, visited the exhibition ‘Sfumature d’Azzurro’ (Shades of Azzurro) at the Cortile Federico II in Piazza del Comune, Cremona. Welcoming the Azzurrini delegation were Giuseppe Andrea Carletti, the city councillor responsible for public works and urban planning, and members of Gianluca Vialli’s family. Among the many memorabilia celebrating the history of Italian football were two of Vialli’s shirts, one worn during Euro 1988 and the other during the 1991 qualifiers.