⚽️🇮🇹 A Del Piero exclusive and Bologna's incredible Euro 2024 impact!
In this week’s Italian soccer digest, we bring you an exclusive chat with a true Azzurri legend, we check in with Serie A stars at Euro 2024 and the Copa America, and more!
🎥 Alessandro Del Piero on the 2006 World Cup, Juventus loyalty, and his surprising hair stylist…
In the debut episode of Calcio & Chill, our good friends at IFTV caught up with the legendary Serie A striker in New York for a wide-ranging discussion on his career...
🫡 Del Piero, who won six scudetti and a Champions League title with Juventus, discusses his loyalty to the Bianconeri through their relegations, and the period when Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to bring him to Manchester United: ‘A true gentleman never leaves his lady.’
❤️ The iconic forward also speaks about his experiences as a father and the importance his own father played in his childhood and career: ‘[The World Cup win] was a really good chapter of my career, but the one that we all remember better is the Champions League in 1996, because my father was still alive. I lost my father in 2001.”
💈 The World Cup winner also talks about the Azzurri’s magical summer in 2006 - including the Ballon d’Or-winning teammate who became the hair stylist for club and country!
😲 Del Piero made headlines this week when a current Azzurri star scored a carbon copy of one of his World Cup goals…
🇮🇹 Del Piero inspires Italy’s decisive Euro 2024 goal!
Italy advanced to the knockout stages of Euro 2024 on Monday, thanks to substitute Mattia Zaccagni’s dramatic 98th-minute equalizer against Croatia. The goal drew comparisons to a certain Mr. Del Piero, who scored a very similar late goal in the 2006 World Cup semifinal victory over Germany…
🗣️ “Del Piero was my idol, I had his poster as a child,” said Zaccagni after the goal that booked the Azzurri’s spot in the last 16. “Before we went off to Germany, Del Piero met us in the camp, then we were able to talk via Instagram too and it was so exciting.” Read more at The Guardian.
🙌 Italy progressed as the second-place team in Group B, following an opening victory over Croatia and a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Spain.
🗣️ Coach Luciano Spalletti acknowledged there is work to be done ahead of the next game, while praising his impact subs: "The players who came off the bench were immense, those that played for the last 10 minutes were crucial. They kept that shape despite the fact we were ultra offensive."
⏭️ Up next for the national team is a Round of 16 against Switzerland this Saturday, June 29 (12pm ET on FS1). The game will be in Berlin, at the scene of the aforementioned World Cup 2006 triumph (more on that below).
🇨🇭A pair of draws against Switzerland during 2022 World Cup qualification ultimately cost Italy an automatic qualification spot. However, these teams last met in this competition in the 2020 edition, where the Azzurri secured a comfortable 3-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico.
📰 All this talk of Del Piero and a big game in Berlin leads us to a phrase that has been evoked across Italian media lately…
💬 Calcio Conversations
Italian media coverage of the Azzurri’s efforts in Germany this summer is packed with references to the Eroi di Berlino.
🤔 What does it mean? The phrase means ‘The Heroes of Berlin’ and refers to Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning team. They sealed Italy’s fourth world title in the German capital by beating France on penalties in a game best remembered for France legend Zinedine Zidane being sent off for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi.
🤔 Who were the Eroi di Berlino? We won’t list the full squad here, but some of the best-known players include goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon - who is with the current Italy squad as a team manager - Ballon d’Or-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, midfield duo Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso, forwards Luca Toni and Francesco Totti and, of course, Alessandro Del Piero!
🤩 Bologna players enjoying prolific summer at Euro 2024
No team in world soccer has had more impact at Euro 2024 than Bologna, whose players have continued the incredible form that led to Champions League qualification last season.
😳 Ahead of Saturday’s big game, Italy national team fans may be concerned to learn that much of Bologna’s success has come from their Swiss contingent: Michel Aebischer has earned a goal and an assist, Dan Ndoye scored his first-ever national team goal against Germany, and Remo Freuler has a brace of assists.
🧤 Bologna goalkeeper Łukasz Skorupski was also awarded the Player of the Match Award in Poland’s 1-1 draw with France.
🇦🇹 Elsewhere, Austria topped a challenging group featuring France and the Netherlands, thanks in part to a penalty goal from Inter’s Marko Arnautović.
⚽️ Sassuolo’s Nedim Bajrami scored Albania’s consolation against Italy, while Empoli’s Răzvan Marin, as well as the Azzurri trio Nicolò Barella, Alessandro Bastoni, and Zaccagni have all been on scoresheet so far. Parma’s Romanian winger Dennis Man, is joint-top in the assists rankings, with two.
🇨🇭 Coming back to Swiss stars who will likely feature in the Azzurri’s game on Saturday: Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer and Torino defender Ricardo Rodriguez have played every minute.
🌎 Lautaro Martínez among Serie A stars shining at the Copa America
Defending Copa America champions Argentina have advanced to the knockout stages of the competition, with Inter’s Lautaro Martínez finding the net in both of their opening games.
🇦🇷 Lautaro, the reigning Serie A capocannoniere, came off bench to score in the tournament opener as Argentina beat Canada 2-0. Roma’s Leandro Paredes was in the starting XI, while Lautaro’s Inter teammate Tajon Buchanan started for Canada.
💪 Lautaro was an impact sub for the Albiceleste once again on Tuesday night, when he came on to score the decisive goal in his nation’s 1-0 victory over Chile.
👏 Juventus defender Danilo captained Brazil in their opener as they were held 0-0 by Costa Rica. Cagliari’s Gianluca Lapadula (Peru) and Nahitan Nández (Uruguay), Napoli’s Mathías Olivera (Uruguay), Genoa’s Johan Vásquez (Mexico), Parma’s Yordan Osorio (Venezuela), Bologna’s Jhon Lucumí and Cagliari’s Yerry Mina (both Colombia), and Inter’s Alexis Sanchez (Chile) have also been in action so far.
🗣️ Inter youngster Valentín Carboni, who spent last season on loan at Monza, has earned praise from none other than Lionel Messi: “Valentín Carboni has a great future. He is the present and future, we must take advantage of him. I had already seen him at the U20 but he grew a lot, he is a different player, much more trained with tremendous quality.”
🇺🇸 And, of course, it would be remiss to round up Serie A stars at the Copa America without mentioning Mr. Pulisic and his compatriots…
🇺🇸 Christian Pulisic opens USMNT Copa America campaign in style
After an incredible debut season with Milan, Christian Pulisic has continued his form into the Copa America, taking only three minutes to open the USMNT account against Bolivia...
🦅 The US captain followed his superb strike by setting up Folarin Balogun’s strike in the 2-0 win at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
🗣️ “We came out flying with a lot of intensity. Obviously that early goal helped us a lot. All round a pretty dominant performance,” said Pulisic, who will likely lead the USMNT in its second group stage match against Panama tonight (6pm ET on FOX).
👏 Pulisic was named Player of the Match and also earned praise from Neymar, who has tipped the USA to make a deep run: “[Pulisic] is a great player, he spent a long time at Chelsea. The U.S. will surprise during the Copa America. From what I saw in the game against Brazil, they have everything to give teams trouble."
🫡 The full complement of American Serie A stars featured in the opening victory, with Tim Weah and Weston McKennie in the starting XI and Yunus Musah coming on for the second half.
🎶 Weah, meanwhile, recently gave an interview to Boardroom discussing his desire to “transition into music in the future, whether that’s producing or being an artist myself.”
🥳 Social Post of the Week: Giorgio Chiellini’s epic reaction to late Italy strike
Euro 2020 champion Giorgio Chiellini may be behind a desk in the FOX studios for this tournament, but the legendary former defender still celebrates Azzurri goals like he’s on the field…
👋 Torino, Venezia, and Udinese make managerial changes
Ten Serie A teams will have a new coach in 2024-25, with Torino, Udinese and Venezia among the latest to make changes at the top.
Torino has appointed Paolo Vanoli as its coach, replacing Ivan Juric after three seasons in charge.
Vanoli, a former Italy National Team assistant coach, arrives after leading Venezia back to Serie A for this season.
On Wednesday, Venezia officially appointed Eusebio Di Francesco as Vanoli’s replacement, on a two-year contract. The former midfielder departed Frosinone following their relegation in May.
Udinese, meanwhile, has appointed German manager Kosta Runjaic, who replaces Eroi di Berlino stalwart Fabio Cannavaro. The outgoing coach was brought in for Udinese’s final six games of last season, where he was successful in keeping them in the top division.
Also, after his appointment at the start of June, new Fiorentina coach Raffaele Palladino has been presented to the press. The former Italy winger, who most recently coached Monza, replaces Vincenzo Italiano, who will now take charge of Bologna.
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