Italy, reigning European champion, qualified on Monday evening for Euro-2024 thanks to its draw against Ukraine (0-0) in Leverkusen (Germany) during the last qualifying match, thus avoiding the trap of a dam at the end of March.
Luciano Spalletti’s men will thus defend their trophy won in the summer of 2021, while Ukraine will have to win its play-off at the end of March with Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Finland to compete for the fourth Euro in its history.
Italy thus spares itself the stress of a decisive play-off which was fatal to it in November 2017, in a round-trip format against Sweden, and in March 2022, in a Final 4 format, beaten in the semi-final by North Macedonia.
These setbacks had deprived it of the last two World Cups, in 2018 in Russia and last year in Qatar, a trauma for a country which had until then only missed the World Cup twice, in 1930 and in 1958.
Italy won a second continental title in July 2021, but saw its European champion coach Roberto Mancini resign to everyone’s surprise in mid-August, before taking the post of coach of Saudi Arabia two weeks later .
His successor, Luciano Spalletti, had a mixed start, hanging in North Macedonia, beaten in England, but securing the necessary successes at home against Ukraine, Malta and North Macedonia.
Slovenia also qualified after their 2-1 victory against Kazakhstan on Monday in Ljubljana.
Slovenia, independent since 1991, will compete in Germany (June 14 – July 14) for only the second Euro in its history after the 2000 edition, where it did not make it out of the group stage.
Finally, the Czech Republic also joins the ranks of qualifiers after their 3-0 victory against Moldova on Monday in Olomouc.
The Czech selection will play its eighth Euro there since the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Finalist in 1996, it was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the previous Euro in the summer of 2021.