Italy vs Albania Head-to-Head stats and numbers you need to know before Match 4 of UEFA Euro 2024

Reigning champions Italy will kick off their UEFA Euro 2024 campaign against Albania at Signal Iduna Park on Saturday. Italy are hoping to secure their third European Championship title while Albania have made it to the group stage for just the second time.

This will be the second match in Group B, with Spain and Croatia meeting at the Olympiastadion Berlin three hours earlier. With two former Euro winners and one FIFA World Cup runner-up in the group, Albania are the odd ones out and possibly the weakest team in the so-called 'Group of Death'.

Both teams had a solid outing in the warmup friendly games earlier this month, with the Azzurri keeping clean sheets in their meetings against Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ended in a goalless draw and a 1-0 win, respectively.

Gianluca Scamacca is the key attacking threat for head coach Luciano Spalletti in this competition. The Atalanta striker has just one goal for the national team and will look to add to his tally as he has been in good form for club side Atalanta.

Albania won their two friendlies in Hungary, recording a 3-0 win over Liechtenstein and a 3-1 win over Azerbaijan. They are the quintessential underdogs for the tournament and will look to cause an upset in this match.

Elseid Hysaj is the most experienced player in Albania's squad for this competition, with 84 caps. He has played in Italy for the entirety of his senior club career and could be a key player in this match.

---

Italy vs Albania Head-to-Head stats

There's not much history between the two sides, as they have crossed paths just four times thus far. Two of these meetings were friendlies and the other two meetings came in the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in 2017.

The Euro 2020 champions have a 100% record in these meetings, keeping three clean sheets. Albania have scored just one goal in their four matches against Italy, who have seven goals to their name.

Italy form guide: W-D-W-W-D

Albania form guide: W-W-L-L-D

---

Italy vs Albania: Numbers you need to know before their UEFA Euro 2024 encounter

The Azzurri had a perfect record in the group stage of Euro 2020, scoring seven goals without a reply in three games. It was the first time since the 2000 edition, in which they finished as the runners-up, that they had won all three group-stage games.

After keeping clean sheets in their group stage games in the previous edition, they conceded one goal each in their four knockout stage games. Interestingly, their tally of 13 goals in the 2020 edition was their best goalscoring performance in the European Championships and the only edition in which they scored more than 10 goals.

Kuqezinjtë have played in the group stage of the European Championships just once, in the 2016 edition. They failed to qualify for the knockout stage, recording one win and suffering two losses. They scored just one goal while conceding thrice.

They finished atop the Group E standing in the European qualifiers, suffering just one loss in eight games, so they pack quite a punch. They have a well-balanced squad and can put the Italians to the test here.

Both teams have been in good touch recently and while the defending champions look favorites on paper, this could be a closely contested affair.