Italy national football B team is a B team representing the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

. Over time, the squad has faced other nations' full teams and played matches against 'B' teams from other football associations. Since the team's creation in 1927, they have played 70 official matches.

History

Italy B was created in 1927, to give the possibility to test under-21 or less experienced players, in addition to those involved with the senior national team. made their debut at the

Stade de la Frontière Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears ...

Esch-sur-Alzette Esch-sur-Alzette (; lb, Esch-Uelzecht ; german: Esch an der Alzette or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is the second city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the country's second-most populous commune, with a population of 35,040 inhabitants, . It lies ...

on 17 April 1927, beating Luxembourg's A team 5-1. The selector of the team was

Renzo De Vecchi Renzo De Vecchi (; 3 February 1894 – 14 May 1967) was an Italian football player and coach who played as a defender. He competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics with Italy, and is officially the youngest player to have ever played a match for the ...

. The team also had elements of some experience, such as

Luigi Cevenini Luigi Cevenini (; 13 March 1895 – 23 July 1968) was an Italian football player and coach who played as a forward. Club career Throughout his career, Cevenini played 190 times for Internazionale and scored 186 goals, winning the Italian Prima D ...

, the author of the first goal. Until the Second World War the use of this national team was very frequent, so much so that between 1929 and 1939, a total of 38 matches were played, the most notable of which being the team's biggest ever victory, when they again beat Luxembourg A, 12-0, at the

Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia is a multi-use stadium in Como, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Como 1907. The stadium holds 13,602 people. The stadium was completed in 1927 and was built on precise ...

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

, on 10 April 1932. Their first meeting after the war was a match played in

Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ...

on 11 November 1945 by a team from northern Italy, which beat Switzerland B 4-1. In May 1949, Italy B participated in the 1949 Eastern Mediterranean Friendship Cup (or Mediterranean Cup), playing three matches in Athens against Turkey A, Egypt A and Greece A, and they won all three games by a 1 goal margin, thus winning the tournament. Italy's top goal scorers in the tournament were

Aldo Puccinelli Aldo Puccinelli (25 December 1920 – 11 March 1994) was an Italian association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet ...

and

Alberto Galassi Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

with 3 goals each. They then participated in the following tournament of the Mediterranean Cup, where they faced the A teams of Turkey, Egypt and Greece home and away, and Italy B again won with 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, with their only loss in the tournament being a 3-0 shock defeat to Egypt at Prince Farouk Stadium,

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

on 11 November 1951. Italy B also participated in the third and last edition of the Mediterranean Cup, the 1953-58 Mediterranean Cup, with the B teams of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

joining the party to form a six-team tournament, and this time they finished third behind the aforementioned B teams with 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses. The most recent fixture was a non-A friendly with

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

on 31 May 2017, which ended in an 8-0 win to the Azzurri.

Honours

Eastern Mediterranean Friendship Cup Champion:

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

Eastern Mediterranean Cup Champion: 1950-53

References

{{Italy national football team

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

European national B association football teams

History

Honours

See also

References