World Cup champion Spain is playing against Italy in an international friendly match on Wednesday and the game will be streaming from Vicente Calderan at 4 pm ET and comes on a busy fixture calendar for the friendlies, as it is just under 100 days until the Brazil FIFA tournament begins.
Spain dropped in their last friendly against South Africa on the road, but that was not a full squad and now they matchup with Italy and the match will be without Mario Balotelli on the Italian side, as he will be out with an injury. Daniele De Rossi is out and Balotelli will miss the matchup after he injured his shoulder in the AC Milan loss to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 and that came back on February 19. The Italian star is expected to be fine for the World Cup in the summer and he is in no danger of missing out on making the team and now forward Ciro Immobile will come up after scoring 13 goals at Serie A this season so far.
Italy and Spain have battled before and the last time they played was back in the Confederations Cup and the Italians lost on penalties in that game and they also previously played back in the 2012 Euro Championship when they were 1-1 in the group stage and then the Spanish team won 4-0 in the finals. Italy went on to draw with Uruguay after that and Spain fell to Brazil and now both sides are gearing up for the World Cup.
Spain comes into things as defending champions and they are in Group B and will open things up against the Netherlands and that will be from Arena Fonte Nova and the following matchup will be with Chile and that will be on the second Wednesday and comes from Estadio do Maracanã. The final matchup will be against Australia and that is from Arena da Baixada and the team will be the strong favorites in the group. Italy has a tough group as well in Group D and they start off against England and that will be from Arena Amazonia in the jungle, while the second match is against Costa Rica at Arena Pernambuco. The last matchup against Uruguay will be an anticipated game as well and that is from Estadio das Dunas. The United States and Ukraine are playing on Wednesday in an international friendly, while France and the Netherlands is another match.
