Italy vs Switzerland: UEFA EURO 2020 match background, facts and stats

Italy and Switzerland are old foes at international level, although their meeting in Rome in the second round of Group A games will be their first fixture in a decade – and their first competitive match since 1999.

• This is only the third time the teams have met in a final tournament, and the first in almost 60 years.

• Italy are looking to build on a 3-0 win against Turkey in Rome in the opening match of UEFA EURO 2020, Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne adding to an own goal in what was Italy's biggest EURO finals victory. It was the first time they had scored three goals at the tournament in their 39th fixture.

• Switzerland, meanwhile, had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Wales in Baku in their first game, Breel Embolo's 49th-minute opener enough only for a point.

Previous meetings

• The Azzurri have dominated fixtures against their neighbours, winning 28 of their 58 matches and losing only eight – although the last three matches between the teams, all in Switzerland, have been drawn. Their most recent meeting was a 1-1 friendly draw in Geneva on 5 June 2010, Gökhan Inler's tenth-minute opener for the home side cancelled out four minutes later by Fabio Quagliarella. Substitute Xherdan Shaqiri played for Ottmar Hitzfeld's Switzerland, while Giorgio Chiellini was in Marcello Lippi's Azzurri side.

• That stretched Italy's unbeaten run against Switzerland to eight matches (W4 D4), since a 1-0 loss in Berne in 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifying in May 1993. The Azzurri's last win against the Swiss came in a Geneva friendly in April 2003, Nicola Legrottaglie and Cristiano Zanetti scoring in either half to secure a 2-1 success.

• The sides' last competitive matches came in qualifying for UEFA EURO 2000, Italy winning the first game 2-0 in Udine – Alessandro Del Piero scoring in each half – before a goalless draw in Lausanne. Italy went on to win the group with 15 points to reach the final tournament, finishing one point and two places above the eliminated Swiss.

• Those results continued the pattern of Italy recording a home win and an away draw when the teams have been paired together in EURO qualifying, following on from the preliminaries for the final tournaments of 1968 (2-2 a, 4-0 h) and 1988 (3-2 h, 0-0 a). In both those instances, the Azzurri went on to reach the finals.

• Italy also came out on top in the teams' last meeting at a final tournament, recording a 3-0 victory against the Swiss in the group stage of the 1962 World Cup. Eight years earlier, World Cup hosts Switzerland had beaten Italy 2-1 and 4-1 in the space of seven days, the second of the wins in a play-off.

EURO facts: Italy

• This is Italy's tenth EURO final tournament and their seventh in a row since sitting out the 1992 edition in Sweden. Only twice have they failed to advance through the group stage – in 1996 and 2004.

• Italy got as far as the quarter-finals at UEFA EURO 2016, finishing first in their group and beating holders Spain 2-0 in the last 16 only to lose to Germany in the last eight, going down 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

• Italy triumphed on home soil at the 1968 UEFA European Championship and have been runners-up twice since – in 2000 and 2012.

• This time round, Roberto Mancini's side won all ten of their qualifiers to finish first in Group J, swelling the number of countries to have reached the finals with a perfect record to eight, Belgium also having achieved the feat in the UEFA EURO 2020 preliminaries. Of the previous six to have won every qualifier, however, only Spain (2012) went on to win the tournament itself.

• A 3-0 win away to Bosnia and Herzegovina in their penultimate qualifier was Italy's tenth successive win in all internationals, the first time in their history they had achieved that feat.

• The Azzurri made it 11 straight victories with a 9-1 home win against Armenia in their final qualifying game, the first time they had scored nine goals in a game since August 1948. Seven different players were on the scoresheet, a new national record.

• The Matchday 1 win against Turkey means Italy's record in Rome is now W36 D18 L6, with three of those defeats coming in their last seven matches at the Olimpico. Those are the Azzurri's only losses in their last 19 matches in Rome (W14 D2).

• Italy are undefeated in the Italian capital in EURO and FIFA World Cup matches; at final tournaments Italy's record in Rome is W9 D2.

EURO facts: Switzerland

• This is Switzerland's fifth EURO, all in the last seven editions of the competition. Eliminated in the group stage in 1996, 2004 and as co-hosts in 2008, they finished second in their section at UEFA EURO 2016 behind hosts France but bowed out in the last 16, losing 5-4 on penalties to Poland after a 1-1 draw.

• The Matchday 1 draw with Wales means Switzerland's record in 14 EURO finals games is now W2 D6 L6.

• This is Switzerland's fourth successive appearance in a major tournament having also qualified for the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups, reaching the last 16 at both.

• The Swiss booked their place at UEFA EURO 2020 by finishing first in Group D, taking 17 points from their eight qualifiers. They won four of their last five matches, scoring 13 goals and conceding only two in that five-game sequence with three clean sheets.

• A 1-0 loss away to Denmark in October 2019 is Switzerland's only defeat in their last 15 EURO fixtures, qualifying and final tournament combined (W8 D6). They were unbeaten at UEFA EURO 2016 (W1 D3), with their shoot-out elimination to Poland classed as a draw, and are now unbeaten in six EURO final tournament encounters, drawing the last four.

• Switzerland finished fourth in the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, losing 3-1 to hosts and eventual champions Portugal in the semi-finals and 6-5 on penalties to England in the third-place play-off after a goalless 120 minutes.

• Switzerland have recorded one win and three defeats in their four games against Italy in Rome, the most recent a 1-0 friendly loss in June 1994 in which Giuseppe Signori scored the only goal. Those are also their only games at the Olimpico in Rome. Switzerland's sole victory came in Italy's first international after their 1982 World Cup triumph in Spain, Ruedi Elsener scoring the only goal of the game against Enzo Bearzot's side.

• Italy are Switzerland's most frequent opponents. This is the 59th match between the sides; Germany are second on the list with 51 games against the Swiss.

Links and trivia

• Switzerland coach Vladimir Petković knows the Olimpico in Rome well, having been in charge of Lazio between 2012 and 2014, winning the Coppa Italia in 2012/13.

• Have played in Italy:
Ricardo Rodríguez (AC Milan 2017–20, Torino 2020–)
Remo Freuler (Atalanta 2016–)
Edimilson Fernandes (Fiorentina 2018/19 loan)
Xherdan Shaqiri (Internazionale 2015)
Haris Seferović (Fiorentina 2010–13, Lecce 2012 loan, Novara 2013 loan)

• Have played together:
Gianluigi Donnarumma & Ricardo Rodríguez (AC Milan 2017–20)
Federico Chiesa & Edimilson Fernandes (Fiorentina 2018/19)
Rafael Tolói & Remo Freuler (Atalanta 2016–)
Matteo Pessina & Remo Freuler (Atalanta 2018/19 & 2020/21)

• Emerson and Jorginho were in the Chelsea side that defeated Granit Xhaka's Arsenal 4-1 in the 2019 UEFA Europa League final in Baku.

Latest news

Italy

• Italy made it nine successive wins – all with clean sheets – with their opening victory against Turkey, having defeated San Marino 7-0 in Cagliari and the Czech Republic 4-0 in Bologna in their two pre-tournament friendlies. Roberto Mancini's side are now unbeaten in 28 internationals (W23 D5) since going down 1-0 to Portugal in Lisbon in the UEFA Nations League on 10 September 2018.

• Matteo Pessina, a late addition to Italy's squad following the withdrawal of injured Stefano Sensi, scored his first two international goals in the win against San Marino, and current Under-21 international Giacaomo Raspadori made his senior debut as a substitute against the Czech Republic.

• Gaetano Castrovilli, who won the second of his two caps against San Marino, 18 months after his debut, replaced the injured Lorenzo Pellegrini in the squad on the eve of the tournament.

• Among the seven Italy players selected for both UEFA EURO 2016 and this tournament are skipper Giorgio Chiellini, who is appearing in his fourth successive EURO finals, and Leonardo Bonucci and Salvatore Sirigu, who are both involved in their third. The other survivors from five years ago are Federico Bernardeschi, Alessandro Florenzi and Matchday 1 marksmen Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne.

• Immobile and Insigne both scored their first major tournament goals on their fifth appearance in the win against Turkey.

• Chiellini made it 13 EURO finals appearances as he led Italy out against Turkey – the highest number of any UEFA EURO 2020 participant bar Portugal trio Cristiano Ronaldo (21), Pepe and João Moutinho (both 15) and just four short of Gianluigi Buffon's Italy record.

• Chiellini and Bonucci are the only members of the Italy squad to have scored at any previous major tournament, the former having found the net against both Brazil at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and Spain at UEFA EURO 2016, while the latter was the Azzurri's scorer from the penalty spot in the 2016 quarter-final against Germany.

• Italy will host the final stages of the UEFA Nations League in the autumn. They take on Spain in the first of the semi-finals in Milan on 6 October.

Switzerland

• The opening draw against Wales ended Switzerland’s five-match winning run, which had been extended by victories in UEFA EURO 2020 warm-up games in St Gallen against the United States (2-1) and Liechtenstein (7-0).

• Mario Gavranović scored three of Switzerland's goals against Liechtenstein – the only UEFA EURO 2020 participant to register a hat-trick in any of the pre-tournament friendlies. It was his first international treble.

• Two Switzerland squad members were domestic champions in 2020/21 – Gavranović with Dinamo Zagreb and Christian Fassnacht with Young Boys – while Manuel Akanji was the only domestic cup winner, helping Borussia Dortmund claim the DFB-Pokal.

• Breel Embolo’s goal against Wales was his first in a final tournament at the ninth attempt and just his sixth in 44 international appearances.

• Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka has not missed an international for over three years, since a friendly against Spain on 3 June 2018. In that time he has run up 34 successive appearances, the first 30 all in the starting XI. The last competitive international he failed to start was a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Hungary on 7 October 2016, for which he was suspended; he has been selected for all 36 since.

• Xhaka is set to appear in his 26th EURO encounter – finals and qualifying combined – which is three shy of Stéphane Chapuisat's Switzerland record.

• Xhaka is one of ten members of the Switzerland squad who were also involved at UEFA EURO 2016, along with Nico Elvedi, Embolo, Admir Mehmedi, Ricardo Rodríguez, Fabian Schär, Haris Seferović, Xherdan Shaqiri, Yann Sommer and Denis Zakaria, although Elvedi and Zakaria did not actually play in France.