Italy and Ireland are playing on the World Cup International Friendly schedule and the matchup starts at 2:45 pm ET and comes as the Italian side is getting ready for the Brazil 2014 tournament and the matchup is from Craven Cottage before the team heads into the WC with England as their first matchup in Group D.
Italy has a tough group stage and they match up with England in their first game and the other teams in their group are Uruguay and Costa Rica and that means it will be no easy feat to make it out of the group stage. The matchup with England is a classic rematch and the teams also will have to deal with Luis Suarez, who was the best player in the Premier League this year and he is with the Uruguayan team. The second matchup is against Costa Rica before the team plays against Uruguay and that could be very tough this year and the England team is looking to make an impact after their performance last season.
The team plays against Luxembourg on June 4 in their last match before the World Cup and that will be big for the team as they prepare and that matchup comes a week before the Brazil tournament begins. The team comes in looking to make a good run and things start with Brazil and Croatia and that first match is on June 12. The Italian side played against defending champions Spain in their last friendly and they lost 1-0 and before that they matches up in games against Nigeria and Germany. Germany is now in the toughest group, as they have the United States, Ghana and Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo in the Group of death.
Ireland is not in the tournament and they are playing against Italy and then against Costa Rica before a matchup with Portugal and Ronaldo on June 10 and that will be at MetLife Stadium and Ronaldo likely will not be playing as he is dealing with an injury. The team played against Turkey and Serbia before this game and are not in the World Cup.
Check here for the Italy and Ireland live coverage for the match.
