Resurgent England renew rivalry with Italy side searching for identity under Spalletti

The best two teams from the last European championship on Tuesday evening renew acquaintances at the venue where, at their last tumultuous London meeting, it needed penalties to separate them.

To glance back at the compelling, ebb-and-flow final of Euro 2020 – Covid-19 meant it was staged in 2021 – is to remember how close the outcome was, but also to appreciate that in some ways defeat was taken more gently by England than victory was by Italy.

For the home team at Wembley, the same manager who oversaw the silver medal at the Euros is still in charge. Gareth Southgate vividly remembers comforting the young players who had not converted their spot-kicks in that July 2021 shoot-out, and stores the episode among a series of tournament near-misses.

Southgate is still in the post because he has closed in on more podium finishes than any England manager in history. Besides the runners-up placing at those Euros, there was a semi-final at the 2018 World Cup, and going within a missed Harry Kane penalty of taking a 2022 World Cup quarter-final against France into extra time.

It is now more than a decade since Southgate took over the England under-21s, and approaching seven years since he was promoted, via a short spell as interim manager of the seniors, to the main job.

In the same period, Italy have had four different head coaches, and a rollercoaster of ups and downs. They have failed to reach the finals of two successive World Cup tournaments. Yet they still call themselves reigning European champions, defenders of a title to be contested next summer in Germany.

How much resemblance, man for man, the team picked tonight by Luciano Spalletti, who took over as head coach from Roberto Mancini in August, bears to the victorious Euro winners is doubtful. On Saturday, the XI selected for Italy’s 4-0 victory over Malta, a result that kept them in second place in Euro 2024 qualifying Group C, included just one survivor from the starting line-up in the final, Nicolo Barella.

By contrast, England’s last competitive outing, a 1-1 draw with Ukraine, who sit third in Group C, featured eight of the players who took part in the final of Euro 2020.

That speaks to the long-term clarity and loyalty of Southgate. The latter is a quality that sometimes invites criticism. England’s manager has been steadfast in his backing of Harry Maguire as a first-choice in central defence over the last year, a period in which Maguire’s place in the hierarchy at his club, Manchester United, has fallen.

Maguire has started in just one of United’s last 10 Premier League and Champions League fixtures; he’s been on the pitch at kick-off for every one of England’s last 12 competitive games.

Similar scepticism surrounds Southgate’s continuing regard for Jordan Henderson as a key part of his midfield plans, albeit with the 33-year-old often used from the bench.

Henderson, who has 79 England caps, left Liverpool, where his hold on a first-team place was loosening, in the summer to join Al Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia’s Pro League, a move perceived as a step down in terms of its competitive level from the English Premier League. Henderson was booed by a section of the England crowd during last Friday’s 1-0 friendly win over Australia.

“I really don’t understand it,” said Southgate. “His commitment and what he has delivered for England are exceptional.”

Italy have a parallel case, but they treat it very differently. Marco Verratti, a key part of the successful European champion side under Mancini, moved last month from Paris Saint-Germain to Al Arabi in Qatar.

Verratti is, like Maguire, 30. Back in late August, he was, like Maguire, not being selected by his club, then still PSG; he was left out of Spalletti’s first squads. Like Henderson, he is now playing a full part for his Gulf club. But, unlike Henderson, Verratti is not included in his manager’s plans for tonight.

It is not as if Spalletti has an abundant supply of midfield generals, either. Sandro Tonali, of Newcastle United, is unavailable for off-the-field reasons. Arsenal's Jorginho, influential for Italy three years ago, has not been selected in the post-Mancini era.

Against Malta, Spalletti turned, for experience, to 34-year-old Giacomo Bonaventura, the former AC Milan and now Fiorentina midfielder, whose 10-year career with the Azzurri has been rather stop-start.

He had won the last of his 15 previous caps more than three years ago. But Bonaventura celebrated his return to the Azzurri in style, becoming the oldest Italian to score a first goal for his country, with an elegant turn and thunderous long-range finish against the Maltese.

Should he keep his place, Bonaventura will be one of the senior men on the pitch at Wembley. This is no longer the Italy of Giorgio Chiellini and Leo Bonucci, the warrior defenders of Euro 2020, both now in their late 30s, nor of Lorenzo Insigne, who is playing for Toronto FC in Canada. Federico Chiesa, a revelation at the last Euros, is out with injury.

The challenge against Southgate’s England, a team of firm loyalties but also thrillingly rejuvenated, since Wembley 2021, by the emergence of Jude Bellingham, is formidable.

“It’s a game that will tell us a lot about where we are and what our potential is,” said Spalletti.