This afternoon, the Under-19 National Team trained ahead of the match at 19:00 CEST tomorrow against Armenia at the Republican Stadium in Yerevan. It’s essentially a knockout fixture for the Azzurrini who will have to win to keep hopes of progressing in the tournament alive. After losing the opening match 0-3 against Portugal while Spain beat Armenia 4-1, it’s a tough situation in Group A. Nunziata’s side will have the benefit of knowing the result of the match between Spain and Portugal but must focus fully on beating a motivated Armenia side playing in front of a home crowd.

Italy have turned up for the tournament with half the squad underage and the side is perhaps struggling slightly due to inexperience and fatigue after finishing the season a month ago. This appeared to have an effect against Portugal with at least a couple of mistakes made for the goals against.

Atalanta goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi is captaining the side after coming through the various youth sides and he enjoyed the honour of being called up by Roberto Mancini in April for a training camp at Coverciano. “The approach to the match was good,” he said looking back at the Portugal game. “But we then struggled physically. In the first half, we competed with them well but then went behind from a corner and we couldn’t deal with it physically in the second half. He’s clear about the match tomorrow. “We have to fight, lift ourselves up and approach it all together. This group is tight-knit, we can do it.”

In looking to fire up his team, Carmine Nunziata is considering making a large number of changes. “A great performance will be needed against an opponent with the backing fo the crowd. It’s hard to play a game every three days so I’ll use some players who didn’t play in the first game. We need to win tomorrow to have a chance of qualifying against Spain.”

Group A

Matchday One (Sunday 14 July)
Armenia 1-4 Spain

ITALY 0-3 Portugal

Table: Spain and Portugal 3 points, ITALY and Armenia 0

Matchday Two (Wednesday 17 July)
Portugal vs. Spain: 16:45, Banants Stadium
Armenia vs. ITALY: 19:00, Republican Stadium

Matchday Three (Saturday 20 July)
Portugal vs. Armenia: 19:00, Republican Stadium
Spain vs. Italy: 19:00, FFA Academy Stadium

Semi-finals (Wednesday 24 July)
16:00 Banants Stadium
19:00 Republican Stadium

Final (Saturday 27 July)
18:30: Republican Stadium

N.B. - The winner of Group A will face the runner-up from Group B and vice versa. The venues will be confirmed after the group stage.