The Euro 2020 finalists reconvene at Wembley on Tuesday in a crunch qualifier for next year's tournament in Germany, as England host reigning champions Italy in Group C.
With three games remaining in Euro 2024 qualifying, Gareth Southgate's unbeaten troops currently hold a three-point lead over the second-placed Azzurri, who crushed Malta 4-0 on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, the Three Lions warmed up for the blockbuster battle by sinking Australia 1-0 in an international friendly on Friday, where a second-string XI were indebted to Ollie Watkins's second-half strike.
Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at England and Italy's head-to-head record heading into Tuesday's encounter, where a triumph for England would confirm their spot at Euro 2024.
It has been 90 years since England and Italy first pitted their wits against one another on the international stage, where a 1-1 friendly draw in 1933 marked the first of 31 meetings between the two titans, although Italy lead the wins column with 13 triumphs.
Meanwhile, England have got the better of the Azzurri nine times down the years, and an identical number of encounters have ended level, while Italy edge the goalscoring count by the skin of their teeth - netting 41 times compared to the hosts' 40.
Between 1933 and 1961, England proved unbeatable in this fixture with four wins and four draws from their opening eight meetings with Italy - all of which came in friendlies - and not until 1973 would the Azzurri finally snap that miserable streak, beating Sir Alf Ramsey's side 2-0 on a day where future England boss Fabio Capello got his name on the scoresheet.
Home advantage would often win out in subsequent meetings, including in the teams' first pair of competitive contests in 1978 World Cup qualifying, before their maiden showdown at a major tournament at Euro 1980 saw Marco Tardelli net the only goal of the contest in a 1-0 Italy win.
Azzurri-inflicted heartbreak would soon be a common theme for England, who between 1980 and 2012 only gleaned one win from 10 meetings with Italy, including a gut-wrenching 2-1 loss in the 1990 World Cup third-placed playoff and penalty-shootout defeat in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012.
A 2-0 friendly win in 1997 - where Ian Wright and Paul Scholes both scored and assisted each other - was all England had under their belts from that painful period, and with the competitive pressure off their shoulders, the Three Lions also came from behind to win a 2012 friendly 2-1, only two months after Italy's 12-yard superiority dumped them out of the Euros.
However, another six-game winless sequence would follow for England, who lost their 2014 World Cup opener to the 2006 winners before that fateful evening at Wembley in July 2021, where Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford's missed spot-kicks meant that football did not come home; of course, the Azzurri's evening of continental glory was soon overshadowed by the despicable racist abuse of England's penalty-takers.
Failing to score in a 0-0 draw and 1-0 loss to the Italians in the 2022-23 Nations League also played its part in relegating England to League B, but after an 11-year wait for a win against the Azzurri, Southgate's team came away from Naples with a 2-1 Group C win in March, where Harry Kane officially became the greatest goalscorer his nation has ever seen.
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