The hope is that it all finishes like on 4 July 2006 when Marcello Lippi’s Italy beat Germany 2-0 in one of the most iconic games in our history. In Dortmund, it was a World Cup final spot up for grabs, which we then won, whereas tomorrow evening there will be a Nations League semi-final place at stake at Signal Iduna Park (20:45 CET, live on Rai 1 – the Polish referee Marciniak will take charge). To get to the next stage, Italy will have to win by a one goal margin to make up for the loss at the Meazza where Germany came back from behind through Kleindienst and Goretzka after Tonali’s opener. In 2006, Grosso and Del Piero’s goals came in extra time, but we will only have ninety minutes to turn the tie around.

“We are bearing in mind great memories of our ‘teammate’s’ achievements”, Luciano Spalletti said to Vivo Azzurro TV. “They are still our teammates as we want to feel like they are with us in the games that we are playing. Life without memories is meaningless”.

Italy had a good game in Milan, showing their attacking threat and their ability to deal with Germany’s technical dribblers. Spalletti said, “There are sometimes losses that don’t reflect games at all well. This was one of those sorts of matches. Because we accepted playing the whole game man for man against a strong opposition, and we did well, playing from deep and creating goal-scoring chances. In certain moments we suffered, however we conceded almost nothing except a few times that we didn't pay attention. We did what we had to and we had chances to win the game.” 72 hours after the match at San Siro, the manager will have to make a few changes in Dortmund (“more or less four changes”) but he emphasised that the attitude and system won’t change. “We will try to play the same from the start, I am sure that if we have the same attitude as Thursday, there will be a different result. Then we always have the chance to give different players some creative license, that could give us a boost in certain ways”

BUONGIORNO. With Calafiori’s injury, there is a good chance that Alessandro Buongiorno will feature from the start. The Napoli defender is ready to play his part. “We have been preparing for this match the last few days, we have looked back on the errors that we made and we will go into the game with the right attitude. We have turned the page straight away and we are fully focused on this next leg, there is all to play for and we will be fully prepared.”, he said in his Vivo Azzurro interview.

SQUAD LIST

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain), Alex Meret (Napoli), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);
Defenders: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Pietro Comuzzo (Fiorentina), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Gatti (Juventus), Matteo Ruggeri (Atalanta), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham);
Midfielders: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Cesare Casadei (Torino), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Samuele Ricci (Torino), Nicolò Rovella (Lazio), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle);
Forwards: Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Daniel Maldini (Atalanta), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio).