The National Under-19 side start their European adventure tomorrow (3 July). Bollini's lads will face hosts of the tournament, Malta, in what will be their final commitment of the season. Placed into Group A, the Azzurrini will also meet Portugal (6 July) and Poland (9 July). Group B is composed of Iceland, Greece, Norway and Spain with their group games set to commence the day after Group A. After arriving in Malta in the afternoon on 30 May, the squad have had two final training sessions, including one this afternoon, to try and bring everyone's fitness levels up to the same standard following three different stages of preparation for Bollini's players due to their various end-of-season schedules. The Azzurrini Head Coach will have to do without Giacomo Faticanti and Fabio Chiarodia, who are suspended for one game. On tomorrow's game, Bollini warned: “Malta are not considered one of the strongest teams in football but they have improved a lot by bringing in some very professional members of staff: there's an Italian team that have coordinated the National Youth Sector setup for many years. They've done some impressive scouting even though their selection pool is obviously quite different to some of the big nations, but they do have an advantage comapred to the rest of us: they coach their National teams like a domestic Club. The have their players in at least three times a week on average and thanks to this they are a well-organised side," the Coach concluded.

Given Faticanti's absence, Filippo Missori will be captain for the game: “It'll be a difficult game," said Filippo, a Roma youth product who recently moved to Sassuolo – "because it's our opening game and we're playing the hosts. We'll look to give everything to start off in the best possible way."

All of Italy's games will be shown live on Rai Sport.

Italy come into the competition on the back of a tricky Elite Phase stage, played in Bremen, by coming through a group of death beating the hosts, Germany, 3-2 in their opening game before drawing 0-0 with Slovenia and Belgium 2-2.

It's a European Championships with some big names missing: reigning champions England (eliminated at home by Iceland) and France (eliminated at home by Norway), with the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium unable to get past the Elite Phase. Out of the eight finalists from the last edition in Slovakia, only Italy have made it through the Final stages again in Malta.

The Groups

Group A: Malta, Portugal, Poland and ITALY

Group B: Iceland, Greece, Norway and Spain (games to be played on 4, 7 and 10 July)

Group A Schedule

Monday 3 June

Poland vs. Portugal, 18:00 CEST, Tony Bezzina Stadium, Paola
Malta vs. ITALY,  21:00 CEST, National Stadium, Ta'Qali, live on Rai Sport;

Thursday 6 July
Portugal vs ITALY, 18:00 CEST, Centenary Stadium, Ta'Qali, live on Rai Sport
Malta vs. Poland, 21:15 CEST, Centenary Stadium, Ta'Qali

Sunday 9 July
ITALY vs. Portugal,18:00 CEST, National Stadium, Ta'Qali, live on Rai Sport
Portugal vs. Malta, 18:00 CEST, Gozo Stadium, Xewkija.

(Top two qualify for the semi-finals)

Semi-finals

Thursday 13 July
18:00 CEST, Tony Bezzina Stadium, Paola
21:00 CEST, National Stadium, Ta'Qali

Final

Sunday 16 July
21:00 CEST, National Stadium, Ta'Qali

Group Stage Opposition

MALTA: Being hosts, they did not need to participate in the qualifying stages. Head Coach: Toze Mendez. Formation: 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2. Players to watch: Among their squad is central defender Lucas Caruana, who plays in Sampdoria's Primavera. Other important names include the Scicluna brothers, Lucas and Dylan, midfielder and attacking midfielder, respectively, who play in Wolverhampton Wanderers' Under 21s. It's a National side that works like a domestic club side, with weekly training sessions, and a defensively-minded style with fast counter-attacking. 

PORTUGAL. The Portuguese came through qualifying with a 100% record: three wins out of three beating Sweden (1-0), Czech Republic (3-0) and Slovakia (3-0), scoring seven goals without conceding. The last time they were crowned European Champions at this level was in 2018 defeating Paolo Nicolato's Italy after extra-time (4-3). Head Coach: Joaquim Milheiro. Formation: 4-3-3. Players to watch: Hugo Felix, brother of Joao, Benfica U23 attacking midfielder; Carlos Borges, Manchester City U23 attacking midfielder; Rodrigo Ribeiro, Sporting Lisbon (B) centre-forward. A highly skilful squad with some defensive gaps.

POLAND. The Polish qualifed for the tournament after beating Latvia (3-0) and drawing with Israel (1-1) and Serbia (2-2) in the second phase of qualifying. Head Coach: Marcin Brosz. Formation: 3-5-2. Players to watch: Legia Warsaw centre-forward Jordan Majchrzak was on loan at Roma Primavera last season, making his debut in Serie A against Sassuolo; other players also plying their trade in Italy's Primavera sides include Hellas Verona's centre-forward Viktor Matjyewicz, SPAL right-back Dawid Bugaj, Bologna midfielder Kacper Urbanski, and Parma centre-forward Mateusz Kowalski. The last name to note is Zaglebie Lublin attacking midfielder Tomasz Pienko, who has three goals currently and is the National teams leading scorer. Most of the other players play in the Polish top league. The team is characterised by strong physicality and aggressiveness and will be competing in their first Euros for 16 years.

Trophies

(Euros won)

Spain (8), France (3), England (2), Italy, Portugal and Ucraina (1).