Rovella on Italy ‘heart' and midfield battle with Germany's Musiala
Nicolò Rovella believes Italy can get the better of Germany with 'heart' in the Nations League quarter-final and looks forward to the midfield battle with Jamal Musiala.
It kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 GMT.
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.
The second leg will be in Dortmund on Sunday evening and the winner goes through to the Final Four of the Nations League.
Rovella is one of the surprises in Luciano Spalletti's line-up, chosen rather than Samuele Ricci of Torino to pull the midfield strings.
'It is certainly exciting, but I am calm, we prepared very well for this match and will certainly have a great performance on our own turf,' Rovella told RAI Sport.
It is going to be quite the midfield battle between the Lazio player and Bayern Munich talent Musiala in that midfield.
'Musiala is certainly a great player who is doing wonderful things, we'll see how it goes on the pitch.'
Rovella grew up just yards away from the stadium in the San Siro area of Milan and came here as a child, so starting tonight for Italy is a dream come true.
Germany have had the better results against Italy in recent years, but the biggest games tended to go the way of the Azzurri.
'Italy has something extra in its heart, so despite the fact we are up against a strong opponent, I think we can do more with that heart.'
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USA Today
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New York Times
8 hours ago
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Can Bayern get to double figures?
The biggest expected mismatch of the tournament lived up to its reputation with Bayern putting 10 goals past Auckland City Getty Images USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images 77' Bayern Munich 8-0 Auckland City As a Leicester City fan, I take great pleasure in saying that I have seen a 9-0 win, when my beloved team stuffed Southampton on the road back in 2019. And Manchester United inflicted the same margin of defeat on the same opponent a few years later. I have still yet to see a team score 10 goals in one game — Bayern have another quarter of an hour or so to make that happen. Getty Images 73' Bayern Munich 8-0 Auckland City An eighth goal for Bayern Munich and their first from the penalty spot today. It was actually a pretty harsh decision to award the spot kick with Musiala making a lot of a pretty innocuous challenge on him in the box. 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Coman and Olise were the stand-out players in the first half but are clearly being rested for the bigger tests on the horizon. Serge Gnabry is on, as is Lennart Karl who is on for his Bayern Munich debut. Getty Images 46' Bayern Munich 6-0 Auckland City I can't imagine there will have been many Auckland City players desperate to bounce up from their dressing room bench to go back out to the pitch. Although, they have decided to return rather than waving a white flag so their death by a thousand cuts is back under way. Getty Images HT Bayern Munich 6-0 Auckland City Shots Bayern Munich : 15 : 15 Auckland City: 0 Shots on goal Bayern Munich: 9 9 Auckland City: 0 Possession Bayern Munich: 53% 53% Auckland City: 36% 36% In contest: 11% Passes completed Bayern Munich: 368 368 Auckland City: 137 Fouls committed Bayern Munich: 8 8 Auckland City: 2 Offsides Bayern Munich: 1 1 Auckland City: 1 Corners Bayern Munich: 4 4 Auckland City: 0 Imagn Images They're an amateur side from New Zealand whose home stadium holds 5,000 fans, most of whom stand, and whose costs to this competition ran to over twice the club's annual turnover. But Auckland City are actually a Club World Cup veteran. This is the 13th time they have qualified and the twelfth time they have taken part (they were unable to attend during the pandemic) and they are here by virtue of being the champions of Oceania — that is: winners of the OFC Champions League. 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