Italy aiming for Serbia revenge

The most successful country in UEFA European Under-21 Championship history, Italy will be seeking a different outcome when they meet Serbia in a rematch of the sides' opening game two years ago.

• Five-times winners Italy succumbed to a surprise 1-0 defeat at De Goffert Stadium in Nijmegen in the 2007 finals, Dejan Milovanović's 63rd-minute strike doing the damage. Serbia went on to finish top of the group while Italy, despite a victory and a draw subsequently, ended up in third place so both sides will know the importance of a winning start in Helsingborg.

• The lineups for that meeting in Nijmegen on 11 June 2007 were:
Serbia: Damir Kahriman, Branislav Ivanović, Antonio Rukavina, Aleksandar Kolarov, Milan Smiljanić, Boško Janković, Dejan Milovanović, Duško Tošić, Stefan Babović (Nikola Drincić 76), Miloš Krasić (Zoran Tošić 32), Dragan Mrdja (Djordje Rakić 83).
Italy: Gianluca Curci (Emiliano Viviano 22), Marco Andreolli, Giorgio Chiellini, Antonio Nocerino, Andrea Mantovani, Riccardo Montolivo, Alberto Aquilani (Graziano Pellè 82), Giampaolo Pazzini, Alessandro Rosina, Andrea Raggi, Raffaele Palladino (Giuseppe Rossi 74).

• The Azzurrini – champions in 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2004 – secured their berth in Sweden by beating Israel 3-1 in a qualifying play-off.

• Serbia overcame play-off rivals Denmark 2-0 on aggregate to qualify. As part of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia's footballers were winners of the very first European U21 Championship in 1976.

• Given both countries' strong tradition of producing young talent, it is no surprise they are old rivals at this level – indeed it was Serbia and Montenegro whom Italy beat to win the trophy in the 2004 final in Bochum, Daniele De Rossi, Cesare Bovo and Alberto Gilardino the scorers.

• There have been four competitive U21 fixtures between Italy and either Serbia or Serbia and Montenegro, with each team recording two victories.

• The breakdown of past meetings is:
2007 Final tournament Group B
11.06.07 Serbia 1-0 Italy, Nijmegen

2004 Final
08.06.04 Italy 3-0 Serbia and Montenegro, Bochum

2004 Final tournament Group A
29.05.04 Italy 2-1 Serbia and Montenegro, Bochum

2004 Qualifying Group 9
09.09.03 Serbia and Montenegro 1-0 Italy, Novi Sad

• In qualifying for the 2004 finals, the teams also meet in Avellino on 11 October 2002, albeit the visitors were then still technically known as Yugoslavia. Italy won the match 4-1.

• Italy coach Pierluigi Casiraghi was a member of the Azzurrini team defeated by the former Yugoslavia at the semi-final stage of this competition in 1990. After a 0-0 first-leg draw in Zagreb, Yugoslavia earned an away-goals victory after drawing the return match 2-2 in Parma – thanks to an equalising goal by future AC Milan midfielder Zvonimir Boban.

• Italy and Yugoslavia first met in the competition when drawn to meet at the group stage in 1980-82. Both sides recorded a 1-0 home win but it was Italy who finished top to reach the quarter-finals.

• At senior level, Italy met Serbia/Serbia and Montenegro three times between 2002 and 2005 with all three games finishing 1-1.

• Italy and the former Yugoslavia met 17 times. The Italians won eight of those encounters, with four victories for Yugoslavia and five draws.

• Serbia coach Slobodan Krčmarević was in the Apollon Limassol FC team beaten 4-3 on aggregate by eventual winners FC Internazionale Milano in the second round of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup.

• In the group stage of the same competition this season, Italy's Daniele Dessena scored UC Sampdoria's winning goal in a 2-1 victory at an FK Partizan side featuring Marko Jovanović, Ivan Obradović and Zoran Tošić.

• Alessio Cerci, Andrea Consigli and Sebastian Giovinco were in the Italy side held 1-1 by Serbia and Montenegro in the European U17 Championship Elite round in March 2004. Gojko Kačar and Tošić was in opposition.

• Italy have never lost by more than a single goal in U21 final tournament history.

Squad news
• After defeating Denmark 4-0 on 9 June in their last friendly ahead of the finals, the Italy squad stayed on in the country, training at the sporting centre of Elsinore until they moved north to Helsingborg, venue for all their group stage games, on Saturday.

• The Azzurrini had late afternoon training sessions on Saturday and Sunday at Harlyckan, their training centre in Helsingborg. All 23 players in Casiraghi's squad played a full part in the sessions with no fitness problems reported.

• "It does not matter whether you are strong on paper, you have to prove it on the field," said Italy coach Casiraghi. "I am not setting a minimum objective and I think that all the teams in the final phase start off with the aim of winning. This group has grown a lot over the past three years and now is the time to see the results of the work they have done. I think we were not yet at top condition against Denmark but we've had a few more days to work on that aspect."

• Serbia arrived in Sweden on Thursday, four days after beating FYR Macedonia 4-1 in their final warm-up game on 7 June. They left Helsinborg to move into their base for the group stage, the quiet coastal village of Glumslov, on Sunday lunchtime.

• Kaçar featured as a substitute in the Serbia senior side's FIFA World Cup qualifying wins over Austria and the Faroe Islands on 6 and 10 June respectively. Miralem Sulejmani also featured as a substitute against the Faroes while Nemanja Matić was an unused substitute.

• Krčmarević's squad trained for the first time in Glumslov on Sunday afternoon when they also said goodbye to forward Filip Djordjević, who flew back to Belgrade to begin his recovery from the foot fracture that ruled him out of the finals. His replacement, FK Crvena Zvezda midfielder Slavko Perović, flew in on the same day.

• Serbia midfielder Kaçar admitted that Djordjević's departure was "very bad for us" but added: "We have more than 20 players and they are all good players playing in good clubs and are able to do what the coach expects from them."