On Tuesday, Italy Under-17s kick off their European Under-17 Championship campaign with Poland Under-17s at AEK Arena in Cyprus.
Italy and Poland will both be vying to finish in the top two of a group that contains Slovakia and Sweden.
Match preview
Having finished runners-up on three occasions, Italy head to Cyprus with aspirations of winning the European Under-17 Championship for the very first time.
They will certainly be hoping to produce a better performance than they did in last year's tournament in Hungary.
On that occasion, Italy suffered their first group-stage exit since 2017 after they mustered four points from three matches to finish third in their group.
Italy are making their eighth consecutive appearance at the tournament after negotiating their way through both phases of qualifying.
They collected four points from three games to finish in second place in group 11 of the first stage, before they moved through the gears to top their group in the elite round with two wins and one draw.
Poland have an impressive record at the European Under-17 Championship despite only appearing on three previous occasions.
After enjoying a run to the semi-finals in 2012, Poland experienced a disappointing group-stage exit when they returned in 2022.
However, they produced another strong performance in last year's tournament as they navigated their way to the last four before their journey was brought to an end by eventual winners Germany.
They are now set to make a third consecutive appearance after winning five and losing just one of their six games in qualifying.
Poland head into the tournament in reasonable form, having won four of their last six matches, including a 2-1 victory in their final qualifier against the Czech Republic.
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Team News
Alessandro Longoni is expected to get the nod for Tuesday's contest, and the AC Milan goalkeeper is likely to be shielded by a centre-back pairing of Christian Garofalo and Andrea Natali.
Francesco Camarda represents one of Italy's main goal threats after finishing the qualifying campaign as his country's top scorer with four goals.
As for Poland, Rafal Lasocki is expected to implement a back three, which could result in Bartosz Kriegler, Kacper Potulski and Dawid Szwiec all being presented with starting places.
After scoring six goals in qualifying, Legia Warsaw's Jakub Adkonis will look to contribute to Poland's attacking efforts in the tournament.
Italy Under-17s possible starting lineup:
Longoni; Benjamin, Garofalo, Natali, Cama; Coletta, Mantini, Di Nunzio, Ciardi; Liberali, Camarda
Poland Under-17s possible starting lineup:
Pruchniewski; Kriegler, Potulski, Szwiec; Popielec, Sarapata, Dziewiatowski, Adkonis, Mazurek; Pietuszewski, Izunwanne
We say: Italy Under-17s 2-1 Poland Under-17s
Italy have scored at least two goals in each of their last four matches, and we think that they will showcase their firepower to get their tournament up and running with a win.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
