From Pozzo to Mancini, counting both individual coaches and pairs (Ferrari-Meazza, Herrera-Valcareggi, Bernardini-Bearzot), in 27 debuts for their head coach, the Azzurri have won 13, drawn five and lost nine.

15 of these debuts have taken place in Italy. Milan has hosted the most (3), followed by Rome, Bari (two in a row: Conte and Ventura) and Naples on two (also back-to-back: Viani and Ferrari in the same year, 1960). Livorno, Palermo, Genoa, Bologna, Florence and Padua have all hosted one.

Twelve were played abroad, including the first time with one man in the dugout: Vittorio Pozzo at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. The next one will be abroad too, with Luciano Spalletti set to make his debut as Italy boss in Skopje. Two debuts have taken place in both Switzerland (Zurich and St Gallen) and England (London and Manchester).

North Macedonia will be a new entrant into the list of teams faced by a coach on debut. Austria lead the way in this regard, with Ferrari, Fabbri and Lippi all facing our northern neighbours in their first matches. Then we have Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Finland, Northern Ireland and France (2), followed by Spain, Portugal, the USSR, Romania, Germany, Greece, Norway, Wales, Hungary, Iceland, Croatia, Cote d’Ivoire, the Netherlands, Argentina and Saudia Arabia (all 1). Pozzo’s 6-1 win over Portugal in 1929 was the largest margin of victory of these 27 games, while the 3-1 to France in 2016 under Ventura was the heaviest defeat.

In terms of results, these debuts have not always gone Italy’s way: 13 wins and nine defeats prove that first steps are often the toughest. For example, the most successful coach in the Azzurri’s history, Pozzo, kicked off his time in the dugout with a defeat to Finland at the Olympics in Stockholm. He then drew in his debut of is second stint and won in the third, opening the way for the successes of the 1930s.

In contrast, Foni started well, beating Northern Ireland before losing the second leg and missing out on the 1958 World Cup. In the 60’s, save for Ferrari, we had four wins from five debuts.

From 1974 to now, our head coaches have only recorded five debut wins from a possible 15: Vicini, Maldini, Zoff, Conte and Mancini. Then there were four draws (Bernardini-Bearzot, Sacchi, Trapattoni, and Lippi in his second spell) and dix defeats (Bernardini, Bearzot, Lippi in his first spell, Donadoni, Prandelli, Ventura, and Di Biagio as interim).

 

 

ITALY HEAD COACHES ON DEBUT
COACH	DATES	GAME	RES	PT	VENUE
POZZO	29-06-12	FINLAND VS ITALY	3-2	0	STOCKHOLM
POZZO	09-03-24	ITALY VS SPAIN	0-0	1	MILAN
RANGONE	04-11-25	ITALY VS YUGOSLAVIA	2-1	3	PADUA
CARCANO	14-10-28	SWITZERLAND VS ITALY	2-3	3	ZURICH
POZZO	01-12-29	ITALY VS PORTUGAL	6-1	3	MILAN
FONI	25-04-57	ITALY VS NORTHERN IRELAND	1-0	3	ROME
VIANI	06-01-60	ITALY VS SWITZERLAND	3-0	3	NAPLES
FERRARI	10-12-60	ITALY VS AUSTRIA	1-2	0	NAPLES
FERRARI E MEAZZA	05-05-62	ITALY VS FRANCE	2-1	3	FLORENCE
FABBRI	11-11-62	AUSTRIA VS ITALY	1-2	3	VIENNA
HERRERA - VALCAREGGI	01-11-66	ITALY VS USSR	1-0	3	MILAN
VALCAREGGI	25-06-67	ROMANIA VS ITALY	0-1	3	BUCHAREST
BERNARDINI	28/9/74	YUGOSLAVIA VS ITALIA	1-0	0	ZAGREB
BERNARDINI - BEARZOT	25/9/75	ITALY VS FINLAND	0-0	1	ROME
BEARZOT	08-10-77	WEST GERMANY VS ITALY	2-1	0	BERLIN
VICINI	8-10-86	ITALY VS GREECE	2-0	3	BOLOGNA
SACCHI	13-11-91	ITALY VS NORWAY	1-1	1	GENOA
MALDINI	16-12-96	ITALY VS NORTHERN IRELAND	2-0	3	PALERMO
ZOFF	05-09-98	WALES VS ITALY	0-2	3	LIVERPOOL
TRAPATTONI	03-09-00	HUNGARY VS ITALY	2-2	1	BUDAPEST
LIPPI	16-07-04	ICELAND VS ITALIA	2-0	0	REYKJAVIK
DONADONI	16-08-06	ITALY VS CROATIA	0-2	0	LIVORNO
LIPPI	20-08-08	ITALY VS AUSTRIA	2-2	1	NICE
PRANDELLI	10-08-10	ITALIA VS COTE D'IVOIRE	0-1	0	LONDON
CONTE	4-9-14	ITALY VS NETHERLANDS	2-0	3	BARI
VENTURA	1-9-16	ITALY VS FRANCE	1-3	0	BARI
DI BIAGIO	23-3-18	ARGENTINA VS ITALY	2-0	0	MANCHESTER
MANCINI	28-5-18	ITALY VS SAUDI ARABIA	2-1	3	ST GALLEN
TOTAL: 27 games, 13 wins, 5 draws, 9 defeats. GOALS: 39-30; POINTS: 47/81, average: 0.58 per game.