Tonight, at 8:45 pm, the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine will host Italy-Israel: it is the fourth day of Group 2 of League A of the Nations League. The Azzurri are at the top of the group with seven points (two wins and a draw, the one on Thursday for 2-2 with Belgium ) and are trying to take advantage of the challenge with the bottom team (Israel is at zero points) to gain an advantage over France and Belgium, respectively at -1 and -3 and who will face each other at the same time in Brussels. For Italy it is the opportunity to put a good margin of points in view of the last two matches, those of November that will define the standings .
The match will see massive security measures, for reasons certainly not related to sport. Maximum alert in Udine for the risk of incidents , thanks to tensions and possible public order problems (last night, near the town hall, a sign appeared accusing Udine of being "complicit in the Palestinian genocide"): in the afternoon (5 pm) there will be a peaceful pro-Palestine march, which will start from Piazza della Repubblica and should end in Piazza XX Settembre . A demonstration that, as per the program defined to the police, must in no way meet with the match and the arrival of the fans at the stadium. 11,700 tickets for Italy-Israel have been sold, with a reduced capacity compared to the 25,132 available seats, and the entire area around the stadium (including the hotels hosting the two national teams) has been defined as a red zone . Around 450 stewards are involved, with a thousand officers who will monitor the two events.
Luciano Spalletti will not have Lorenzo Pellegrini on the pitch, having returned to Roma after being sent off on Thursday: Nicolò Zaniolo has been called up in his place, returning to the national team after a year and a half. The goalkeeper will be Guglielmo Vicario from Friuli, announced yesterday at a press conference, also because Gianluigi Donnarumma is on a yellow card (like Federico Gatti, Niccolò Pisilli and Mateo Retegui) . The referee will be Bosnian Irfan Peljto, these are the probable lineups for Italy-Israel.
