SKOPJE

North Macedonia has been independent since 1993, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, meaning their football story started rather recently: the North Macedonian national team made its debut at the end of 1993 and joined FIFA and UEFA in 1994. Over the last 30 years, Italy has only visited Skopje once: on 9 October 2016, and after going down 2-1, the Azzurri came back from behind with two goals from Immobile (3-2).

MILAN

The match against Ukraine will be Italy's 61st match in Milan, the birthplace of the national team (their first-ever match was played at the Arena Civica on 15 May 1910, winning 6-2 over France) and the legendary Azzurro (a game against Hungary in 1911 saw the debut of the iconic blue shirt, with the Savoy shield sewn on the chest, replacing the white shirt worn for the team’s previous outings).

The national team has played their second-most number of matches in Milan (60, just behind Rome at 62). It is where they’ve had the most victories (38, same for Rome, followed by Turin at 25) and scored the most goals (141, Rome 114 and Turin 81). Here, the Azzurri maintained an unbeaten run that lasted almost a century, 96 years to be exact: from January 1925 with the 2-1 win over Hungary (at Campo Milan, whilst the aforementioned 1911 game against the Hungarians ended in a defeat at the Arena Civica), up until October 2021 with the 1-2 defeat to Spain, at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.

The game against Spain was the first defeat for the national team at San Siro, but the record away in other cities over the last decade has not been positive: for 10 years, from the 3-1 defeat against Denmark on 16 October 2012 (goals from Montolivo, De Rossi and Balotelli) to the 1-0 victory over England on 6 October 2022, Italy failed to win, collecting only 5 draws in 6 games, including the match against Sweden which cost them qualification for the 2018 World Cup, and the defeat against Spain. The largest victory in Milan was the 9-4 win for Italy against France on 18 January 1920, counting the second most goals in a single game in the history of the national team, after the 11-3 against Egypt at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. Austria is the opponent most-faced in Milan (6 times), followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary and Portugal (5).

INDIVIDUAL DATA. In Milan, 70 players have made their debut for the Azzurri, including 10 from Inter, 7 from Pro Vercelli, and 6 from Milan itself: among the most well-known of these players and spanning various eras were Umberto Caligaris, Raimundo Orsi, Luis Monti, Carlo Ceresoli, Nereo Rocco, Sandro Mazzola, Franco Causio, and Fulvio Collovati. The last debutant, during the Italy-Croatia game in 2014, was Roberto Soriano, then a Sampdoria player. The most successful striker for the Azzurri in Milan was Silvio Piola (8 goals between 1936 and 1946), followed by Meazza (7), Orsi and Baloncieri (5). There have been 5 hat-tricks in the city (Lana, Aebi, Brezzi, Piola and Filippo Inzaghi), and 19 braces (the last by Pirlo in 2005). The Azzurri player with the most appearances in Milan is Renzo De Vecchi (11 matches between 1911 and 1925).

AZZURRI STADIUMS IN MILAN. In the city, the national team has played on the pitches of four different venues: Arena Civica, Velodromo Sempione (demolished in 1928, it stood on Via Giovanni da Procida, a stone's throw from Vigorelli), Campo Milan in Viale Lombardia (on the block between viale Campania, via Sismondi, via Ostiglia and via Zanella, home now to the Lombardo Tennis Club) and the San Siro Stadium, renamed after Giuseppe Meazza on 3 March 1980. The Azzurri made their debut at San Siro on 20 February 1927 (in a 2-2 draw with Czechoslovakia, the first goal scored in the stadium was by Julio Libonatti).

6 YEARS OF FIGC HEADQUARTERS IN MILAN. Furthermore, between 1905 and 1911 Milan was also the seat of the Football Federation. In those 6 years, 5 Presidents of the Lombard region took turns being in charge: Silvestri (1905), who made the decision to move the headquarters to his own town; Balbiano di Belgioioso (1907); Bosisio (1909); Radice (1910), and Vavassori (1911). After the election of a new president in 1911, the Piedmontese, Ferrero di Ventimiglia, the headquarters returned to Turin.