Overview
Haunted by disappointment when missing the World Cup for the third consecutive time, the Italian team is entering a difficult reconstruction phase after the defeat in the 2026 World Cup play-offs.
Azzurri once nurtured the hope of returning to the biggest football stage on the planet, but their journey ended bitterly when they were defeated by Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Despite being a team that has won the world championship 4 times and won EURO 2020, Italy has now experienced nearly a decade of absence from the World Cup. The achievement crisis has led to a series of changes on the coaching bench.
After Luciano Spalletti left and his successor Gennaro Gattuso suddenly parted ways after only a short time, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) temporarily handed over the right to coach U21 team Silvio Baldini to lead the national team.
In the context that FIGC has not yet appointed an official coach before the upcoming presidential election, Baldini is assigned the task of leading the Azzurri in the friendly matches against Luxembourg and Greece. This coach has summoned many young faces to assess the force for the future.
With many key players being rested after a long season, the reception of Luxembourg will be an opportunity for young talents to score points before the Italian national team enters the UEFA Nations League campaign in September.
On the other side, Luxembourg once surprised when they drew with Italy 1-1 in a friendly match in 2014. However, that was only their first unbeaten match against Azzurri after 5 consecutive defeats before that.
The team nicknamed Les Lions Rouges has also just gone through a forgettable World Cup qualifier when they could not compete with Germany, Slovakia and Northern Ireland. Previously, they were at the bottom of the group in the 2024-2025 Nations League with only 3 points after 6 matches.
However, under new coach Jeff Strasser, Luxembourg has somewhat regained confidence when defeating Malta in both play-off matches to avoid relegation.
After competing with Italy and Albania this month, Luxembourg will aim for a new Nations League campaign, starting with a away match against Bulgaria in September.
Personnel situation
This gathering of the Italian team is deeply marked by rejuvenation when in the list of gathering at Coverciano, there are only Marco Palestra, Niccolo Pisilli, Pio Esposito and captain Gianluigi Donnarumma who have worn the national team jersey.
This opens up opportunities to debut Azzurri for a series of promising faces such as defender Davide Bartesaghi (AC Milan), striker Samuele Inacio (Borussia Dortmund) or young talent Honest Ahanor of Atalanta. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Venturino was forced to withdraw due to injury and was replaced by midfielder Tommaso Berti.
On the Luxembourg side, Jeff Strasser still places his trust in the experienced squad. Captain Laurent Jans, who has 122 caps for the national team, continues to be the spiritual leader of the team, while Daniel Sinani is expected to lead the attack.
Supporting behind Sinani is likely to be Vincent Thill. The winger currently playing for Waldhof Mannheim is in quite good form when scoring in both matches against Malta in the Nations League play-off round.
Luxembourg's most regrettable absence is Leandro Barreiro. The midfielder from Benfica has not been able to return after a long period of struggling with injury and will not be present in this gathering.
Expected lineup:
Moris, Jans, Korac, Carlson, Bohnert, Martins, Olesen, V. Thill, S. Thill, Dardari, Sinani.
Donnarumma, Palestra, Comuzzo, Ahanor, Bartesaghi, Ndour, Lipani, Pisilli, Koleosho, Esposito, Inacio.
The match between Luxembourg and Italy takes place at 1:45 am on June 4 (Vietnam time).
