Skopje (ANP) – Italian footballers dropped points again in Group C to qualify for the European Championship 2024. In Skopje, the European champions of the new national coach Luciano Spalletti could not achieve more than 1-1 against North Macedonia.
After the draw, Italy ranks third in the group with 4 points from three matches. England is at the top with 13 points from five matches. Ukraine, which tied with the English team 1-1 in Wroclaw, Poland, earlier on Saturday, has 7 points from four matches. North Macedonia has 4 points from four matches.
Mancini
Ciro Immobile opened the scoring for the Azzurri shortly after the end of the first half. Anis Bardi equalized in the final minutes of the second half.
Spalletti was appointed as the new coach of the national team last August, after Roberto Mancini left the Italian national team. Mancini then signed as coach of the Saudi national team. The 64-year-old Spalletti led Napoli to win the national title last season.
Swiss leader
Italy will play against Ukraine in Milan on Tuesday. North Macedonia also blocked Italy’s path to the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar last year by beating the European champions 1-0 in the qualifiers.
Kosovo got a point from the qualifying match against Switzerland. In Pristina, the first group match ended in a 2-2 draw. The Swiss remained at the top of the group, in which the match between Romania and Israel also ended in a 1-1 draw.
No more scoring
Remo Freuler had already given the Swiss the lead in the 14th minute. Vedat Muriqi equalized the score for the home team. After Amir Rahmani’s own goal, Muriqi scored a point for Kosovo with his second goal.
Denis Alibec gave Romania the lead against Israel in Bucharest. The visitors equalized the score at 1-1 at the start of the second half through Oscar Galloch. After that there was no more scoring.
