It's the final two games before the European finals. On Friday 21 March in Venice and on Monday 24 March in Cittadella, the Under-21s will be playing The Netherlands and Denmark respectively. They will be two important tests for Carmine Nunziata’s boys, who will be looking to claim the European title in June in Slovakia.

Nunziata has announced his 26-man squad for the games against the Dutch and the Danes (both matches will be played at 18:15 CET, live on Rai 2). Both Samuele Angori, Pisa’s full-back born in 2003, and Issa Doumbia, Venezia’s midfielder, also born in 2003, have received their first call-up. The squad will meet in the morning on Monday 17 at Galzignano Terme (Padua), and in the afternoon they will begin preparing for the two matches.

“SFUMATURE DI AZZURRO” EXHIBITION
The City Library VEZ Mestre will welcome the next leg of the “Sfumature di Azzurro” exhibition with memorabilia from the Football Museum in Coverciano and sponsored by the City of Venice. It will be open from Sunday 16 until Saturday 22 March (from 9:00 to 20:00 CET, free entry). On Wednesday 19 March, from 17:00 CET, there is a visit scheduled for the head of Italy Under-21s delegation, Giancarlo Antognoni, the manager, Carmine Nunizata, and the captain, Lorenzo Pirola. They will be welcomed by the vice-mayor and councillor for sports, Andrea Tomaello, as well as local institutions.

FIXTURE HISTORY
Italy and The Netherlands have played eight times at Under-21 level. The Azzurrini have won five (the last of which was in the 2013 EUROs in Israel, a 1-0 win in the semi-final thanks to Borini’s goal), drawn once, with the Oranje coming out on top twice. On the other hand, we have played 15 games against Denmark U21s: we have won eight, drawn five and lost two. Our last game was in the 2017 EUROs in Krakow, where Italy won 2-0 with Pellegrini and Petagna on the score sheet.

IN VENICE AND CITTADELLA
The Under-21s will play in Venice for the second time, almost nine years on from the friendly defeat (1-0) against France in June 2016. It was a match organised in memory of Valeria Solesin, a victim of the terrorist attack at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. It will be our third match in Cittadella, following games in 2013 against Russia (2-0, Immobile and Insigne scored), and in 2017 against Slovenia (4-1, goals from Cutrone, Favilli, Chiesa and Orsolini).

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Sebastiano Desplanches (Palermo), Jacopo Sassi (Crotone), Gioele Zacchi (Latina);
Defenders: Samuele Angori (Pisa), Nicolò Bertola (Spezia), Diego Coppola (Verona), Daniele Ghilardi (Verona), Marco Palestra (Atalanta), Lorenzo Pirola (Olympiacos), Riccardo Turicchia (Juventus), Mattia Zanotti (Lugano);
Midfielders: Tommaso Baldanzi (Roma), Alessandro Bianco (Monza), Issa Doumbia (Venezia), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna), Fabio Miretti (Genoa), Cher Ndour (Fiorentina), Simone Pafundi (Udinese), Niccolò Pisilli (Roma), Matteo Prati (Cagliari), Christian Volpato (Sassuolo);
Forwards: Giuseppe Ambrosino (Frosinone), Francesco Pio Esposito (Spezia), Sebastiano Esposito (Empoli), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Luca Koleosho (Burnley)