Italy national under-21 football teamFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to:
navigation,
searchItaly Under-21
Nickname(s)Azzurrini(Little Blues)Association
Federazione ItalianaGiuoco CalcioHead coach
Pierluigi CasiraghiCaptain
Marco MottaMost
capsAndrea Pirlo (46)Top scorer
Alberto Gilardino (19)
Home
coloursAway
coloursFirst internationalU23: Italy 3-1 Austria
Varese,
November 1,
1970U21:
Portugal 1-0 Italy
Funchal,
December 23,
1976Biggest winItaly 7-0 Estonia
Catanzaro,
March 23,
1995Italy 8-1
WalesPavia,
September 5,
2003Biggest defeat
Norway 6-0 Italy
Stavanger,
June 5,
1991Records for competitivematches only.
UEFA U-21 ChampionshipAppearances13 (First in
1978)Best resultWinners:
1992,
1994,
1996,
2000,
2004The Italy national under-21 football team is the national under-21
football team of
Italy and is controlled by the
Italian Football Federation. The team competes in the
UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years.Following the realignment of
UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Italian Under-21 team was formed. Until 1990, the team had a very good record - reaching the last eight of each of the first seven UEFA U-21 Championships. From 1990 to 2004 the team established near-total dominance of European Under-21 football, winning five of the seven tournaments. It is the most successful nation in the history of the competition.The lowest point for the team came in 1997, when it failed to qualify for the 1998 finals. The team won the
2004 tournament finals in
Germany. In the
2006 tournament finals in
Portugal the team failed to advance to second round. This was Italy's 14th U-21 finals tournament.Italy's Under-21s played the first match at the new
Wembley Stadium, on
24 March 2007, against
England Under-21s. The game resulted in a 3-3 draw, with
Giampaolo Pazzini scoring all 3 goals for the Azzurrini.In the
2007 U21 Championships Italy finished a disappointing third in their finals group, their worst finish since 1988. However, the team managed to gain qualification for the
football at the 2008 Summer Olympics, beating
Portugal on penalties in a playoff.Prior to the 2008 Olympic games, Italy U-21s went on to win the
2008 Toulon Tournament by beating Chile (1-0) in the final. It was the first time they had won this tournament, previously their best had been runner-up on two occasions
[1].
