Italy U21 v Republic of Ireland U21: All You Need to Know

Tuesday, 15 October

Under-21 European Championship Qualifiers

Italy v Republic of Ireland, Stadio Nereo Rocco, 5.30pm.

TV/Player coverage

Live coverage of the game begins at 5pm on RTÉ2/RTÉ Player.

Online

There will be a live blog on rte.ie/sport, the RTÉ News app, as well as updates and goals on RTÉ Sport on X and RTÉ Sport Facebook.

Weather

It'll be nice and warm in Trieste by the time kick-off rolls around. The first half should be played in hot (well, for the visiting team) and dry conditions, the temperature set to be about 21C, but there is a chance of some rain in the second half.

One win from history

All options are on the table for Jim Crawford's Under-21 side, but the bottom line is that victory in Trieste will secure automatic qualification to Euro 2025 in Slovakia.

The Italians lead the group by three points and have a much superior goal difference, but head-to-head is the first tiebreaker and given last November’s 2-2 draw at Turner’s Cross – when Wilfried Gnonto rescued a point late on for the visitors – a win will do Ireland.

A defeat is not the end of the road either. A loss coupled with a Norway failure to beat the already eliminated Turkey at home and it’s a play-off berth for the side.

A draw and a Norway win would mean the sides finish level on 19 points, but that would be curtains for Ireland – as too, obviously, would be an Italy and Norway win – as the Scandinavian side hold the upper-hand in the head-to-head run. Defeats for Ireland and Norway and it's the play-offs for the former.

If Ireland would like some inspiration, then they can look to their one and only competitive U21 win over Italy back in 2012 – and that came on Italian soil too.

What’s more, Noel King’s side finished the game with nine