Italy will seek to qualify for the knockout rounds of the Euro U21 Championships when they face Norway on Wednesday. After two rounds of play, Italy sit second in Group D while Norway are fourth. Italy battled to win a five-goal thriller with their counterparts from Switzerland in their last match. This secured their first win in the tournament after they had lost 2-1 to already-qualified France on matchday one. They now have to win this match against Norway if they are to make it to the quarterfinals. Gli Azzurini are the joint most successful team in the Euros alongside Spain with five titles. They however last won the competition in 2004 and will hope to end the drought this year. Italy and Norway have played to similar 1-1 scorelines in their past two encounters. The last was a friendly that they hosted in 2018.

Norway have already been eliminated from the competition and will be playing for pride here. They have lost both their matches in the group. After falling 2-1 to Switzerland in their first match, Leif Gunnar Smerud’s charges lost by a solitary goal to France last time out. The loss took their wait for a win to six matches now with four of those games ending in defeat. A lack of firepower upfront has precipitated this slump as in those six matches, they have managed only two goals. Norway were making their third appearance at this year’s championship and this is the first time they have failed to make the knockout rounds. In their previous two tournaments, 1998 and 2013, they made it to the semifinals.



译文(自动翻译仅供参考):

意大利将在周三迎战挪威队，争取进入U21欧洲杯淘汰赛。经过两轮比赛，意大利在D组排名第二，挪威排名第四。在上一场比赛中，意大利队与瑞士队鏖战五球险胜。这确保了他们在第一个比赛日以2比1输给已经出线的法国队后的首场胜利。如果要进入四分之一决赛，他们现在必须赢下这场对阵挪威的比赛。阿祖里尼和西班牙队是欧洲杯上最成功的球队，共获得5个冠军。然而，他们上一次赢得比赛是在2004年，并希望今年结束这一干旱。意大利和挪威在过去的两次交锋中都以1比1打成平局。最后一次是他们在2018年主办的友谊赛。

挪威已经被淘汰出局，他们将在这里为荣誉而战。他们在小组赛中输掉了两场比赛。在第一场比赛中以2比1不敌瑞士之后，雷夫·冈纳尔·斯默鲁德的球队在上一场比赛中以一球不敌法国队。这场失利让他们等待胜利的时间延长到了6场，其中4场以失败告终。锋线火力的缺乏导致了他们的低迷，在这六场比赛中，他们只进了两个球。挪威队这是他们第三次参加今年的世界杯，这是他们第一次未能进入淘汰赛。在1998年和2013年的前两届比赛中，他们都进入了半决赛。