Italy qualify for sixth straight EURO finals

Italy have not missed a UEFA European Championship final tournament since 1992 and that run never looked like ending in this qualifying campaign, the Azzurri wrapping up their place in France with a 3-1 victory over Azerbaijan in their penultimate Group H game.

Antonio Conte's team won their first three qualifiers and, though their progress stalled with two draws against Croatia either side of another stalemate with Bulgaria, consecutive 1-0 triumphs at home to Malta and Bulgaria had the Azzurri in sight of UEFA EURO 2016. Success in Baku made sure.

Reaction
Antonio Conte, Italy coach
Now we're qualified people might think it was easy, but that was not the case. It was a very dangerous group. My team is growing, but we must keep working hard. The players understand each other better game after game. Now we want to play well in Rome against Norway to celebrate our qualification.

Éder, Italy forward
We are delighted with the qualification. This game against Azerbaijan was really important. We have been training all week to play a 4-2-4 formation and, in the event, we played very well. We have tried different playing systems during the qualifying campaign, which is a good thing. This team is very united – it's our main strength.

Key stats
Best result: winners 1968
 Coach: Antonio Conte
 Leading scorers: all-time – Luigi Riva (35); current – Daniele De Rossi (17)
Most appearances: all-time – Gianluigi Buffon (151); current – Gianluigi Buffon (151)

Record EURO appearances
Overall: Gianluigi Buffon (53)
Final tournament: Gianluigi Buffon, Antonio Cassano, Alessandro Del Piero, Paolo Maldini (13)

Record EURO goals
Overall: Filippo Inzaghi (14)
 Final tournament: Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano (3)