Northern Ireland v Italy (15/11/2021)

DOMESTIC • Serie A was founded 123 years ago and remains one of Europe’s leading leagues, being ranked third by UEFA’s league coefficient behind only La Liga and the Premier League. • Juventus are the competition’s most successful club having won 36 Serie A titles, including nine in a row between 2012 and 2020. Inter Milan, the current champions, have won 19 titles, while AC Milan have won the Scudetto on 18 occasions. • In this season’s competition Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli and Stefano Pioli’s Milan have been the early pacesetters. Prior to this international break both teams had 32 points from 12 games, with Inter in third seven points adrift and Juventus down in eighth. • Gianluigi Buffon, who has won the competition 10 times, holds the record for the most Serie A appearances. The current Parma keeper and former Juve stopper has played in 657 Serie A games, 10 more than AC Milan great Paolo Maldini. • Silvio Piola holds the record for the most goals, having netted 274 times in 537 games between 1929 and 1954. Francesco Totti, who spent his entire career with Roma, is second on that list with 250 goals. • Lothar Matthaus, Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio, George Weah, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Kaka were all named FIFA World Player of the Year while playing in the division. • Three Italian clubs have won European Cups or Champions Leagues – AC Milan, Inter and Juventus. Inter became the first Italian club to win a treble when Jose Mourinho led the side to three trophies in 2010.

• Their fourth and most recent World Cup trophy was claimed in 2006 when Italy defeated France in a final shootout in Germany. • They were missing from the most recent World Cup finals in 2018 after losing to Sweden in a play-off. It was the first time Italy had not reached a World Cup tournament in 60 years. • Italy were beaten in the finals of Euro 2000 and Euro 2012, but they won the tournament for a second time this summer when beating England in a penalty shootout at Wembley. • That victory occurred during Italy’s world record 37-game unbeaten run between October 2018 and October 2021.

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