Having qualified for the European Championships in Slovakia, the wait for the group draw (3 December) begins, but before that the Under 21 National Team will being their EURO 2025 preparations with two friendlies in Italy: On Friday 15 at Stadio 'Carlo Castellani' in Empoli (16:15 CET, live on RaiSport) and Tuesday 19 November at Stadio 'Alberto Picco' in La Spezia (18:15 CET, live on Rai 2) the Azzurrini will face France and Ukraine respectively - opponents who - like Italy - have already booked their ticket for the finals phase.

For this double header, Carmine Nunziata has called up 27 players, who will meet on the morning of Monday 11 at the Centro di Preparazione Olimpica di Tirrenia and, in the afternoon, they will begin their preparations for their double header. 

PREVIOUS MEETINGS. The clash against France is something that will be played at Under 21 level for the 20th time. In total, the Azzurrini are ahead with seven wins (the last one came in the third place play off of the Tournoi Maurice Revello last June, ending 1-0 thanks to a Cerri goal), seven draws and five defeats, the last one coming in Cluj in the finals phase of Euro 2023. However, there have been six previous meetings against Ukraine, three of which have ended in wins for Italy (the most recent in a friendly in Reggio Calabria in March 2023 with a goal from Lovato and a brace from Colombo) and one draw. The only win for the Ukrainians came in the Tornero di Tolone in June when they won 4-0.  

AT EMPOLI AND LA SPEZIA The Under 21 National Team will return to Empoli for the fifth time, just three years after their 3-0 win against Luxembourg, secured by Pirola and Cancellieri and an own goal from Olesen. The stadio 'Castellani', in the meantime, hosted the National Team last June in a. match against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in preparation for EURO 2024 (1-0, Frattesi). The Under 21's will play there for the third time after the 2-1 win against France in August 2007 (goals from Dessena and Rossi) and the 3-0 win over Andorra in September 2016 (brace from Di Francesco and a Pellegrini goal). 

SQUAD LIST 

Goalkeepers: Sebastiano Desplanches (Palermo), Jacopo Sassi (Modena), Gioele Zacchi (Latina);
Defenders: Nicolò Bertola (Spezia), Giovanni Bonfanti (Pisa), Diego Coppola (Hellas Verona), Daniele Ghilardi (Hellas Verona), Gabriele Guarino (Carrarese), Michael Olabode Kayode (Fiorentina), Marco Palestra (Atalanta), Lorenzo Pirola (Olympiacos), Matteo Ruggeri (Atalanta), Riccardo Turicchia (Catanzaro), Mattia Zanotti (Lugano);
Midfielders: Tommaso Baldanzi (Roma), Alessandro Bianco (Monza), Edoardo Bove (Fiorentina), Cesare Casadei (Chelsea), Giovanni Fabbian (Bologna), Fabio Miretti (Genoa), Cher Ndour (Besiktas), Matteo Prati (Cagliari);
Forwards: Giuseppe Ambrosino (Frosinone), Francesco Pio Esposito (Spezia), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds), Luca Koleosho (Burnley), Cristian Volpato (Sassuolo)