Saturday sees the start of this European Championship’s knockout stage and team news has arrived from the Round of 16 clash between Switzerland and Italy. It kicks off at 17:00 BST in Berlin.
Both finished second in their group and are therefore fortunate not to face a winner from elsewhere, although stoppage time goals provided mixed Matchday 3 fortunes.
Whereas Switzerland conceded to Germany and were denied top spot, the Italians needed a dramatic equaliser to snatch runners-up honours from Croatia.
Unimpressive so far, the reigning champions have made many changes to their starting line-up. Six, to be precise. Centre-back Alessandro Bastoni (€5.5m) overcomes illness to remain in the XI but Federico Dimarco (€5.0m) is only ready enough for the bench. Riccardo Calafiori (€4.5m) is serving a one-match suspension.
It means Gianluca Mancini (€4.5m) enters the backline, as Federico Chiesa (€7.5m), Nicolo Fagioli (€5.0m), Bryan Cristante (€5.5m) and Stephan El Shaarawy (€6.0m) also get the nod.
Furthermore, Gianluca Scamacca (€7.0m) is back as centre-forward, hoping to score for the first time this summer.
Gianluigi Donnarumma (€6.0m) starts in goal but Jorginho (€5.0m) is demoted to substitute.
Alternatively, there’s just one change for the Swiss, who’ve reached the latter stages for a sixth successive major tournament. Ruben Vargas (€6.0m) comes in for the banned Silvan Widmer (€4.5m), keeping Xherdan Shaqiri (€6.5m) on the sidelines.
Whoever wins will face either England or Slovakia in the quarter-finals.
MATCHDAY 4 TEAM NEWS
Switzerland XI – Sommer; Schar, Akanji, Rodriguez; Rieder, Xhaka, Freuler, Aebischer; Ndoye, Embolo, Vargas
Italy XI – Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni, Darmian; Barella, Fagioli, Cristante; Chiesa, Scamacca, El Shaarawy
8 months, 10 days agoGoddamn Nageslmann being coy with his team
Knew it'd be Raum but was too scared
Though I was gonna play Fullkrug too