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Watch Italy Vs. Spain Live Stream: UEFA Euro 2016 Preview As Rivals Face Off In Friendly International

By Jonathan Vankin
Published on: 16:11 PST, Mar 23, 2016

Italy faces Spain in a high-level international football friendly match that will stream live as the teams will meet for the third time since Spain blew the Azzuri away in the final of the 2012 UEFA European Championships by a dominant 4-0 score. The two teams will be greatly changed since that meeting, but Italy has lost both meetings since then anyway.

In fact, when Italy and Spain clash Thursday at Stadio Friuli the Azzuri will be looking for their first victory over Spain since October if 2011. But the friendly match takes on a heightened significance beyond the rivalry between the two European nations, coming less than three months before the opening of the 2016 edition of the UEFA Euros.

Both teams qualified easily for the final tournament in France, and both appear to have received favorable assignments in the Euros group stage, with Italy in Group E along with Belgium, Sweden, and Republic of Ireland. Spain has been placed in Group D with Turkey, Croatia, and Czech Republic.

Both Italy and Spain would be expected to cruise through their groups, raising the possibility of yet another showdown in the knockout stage.

Watch highlights of the 4-0 Spain victory over Italy to clinch the 2012 UEFA European Championship, in the video below.

To find out how to watch a live stream of the Italy vs. Spain international friendly football match, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. Central European Time at Stadio Friuli in Udine, Italy, on Thursday, March 24.

For fans in the United States, the live stream gets underway at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 12:30 p.m. Pacific.

The game will be preceded by a moment of silence to honor victims of the Brussels, Belgium, terrorist attacks on Tuesday, as well as to commemorate the memory of 13 international university students, all of them women, who perished in a bus accident outside of Tarragona, Spain, on Sunday morning.

Unless Italy and Spain do indeed meet again in the 2016 Euros, Thursday’s match is likely to mark the final meeting of the managers, Vicente del Bosque — who has helmed Spain since 2008 and guided the national team to two Euro titles in 2008 and 2012, sandwiched around Spain’s first World Cup championship in 2010 — and Italy boss Antonio Conte.

Conte has guided the Azzuri for just two years after managing Italy Serie A side Juventus for three years, including two league championships. But Conte is expected to make the move to English Premier League side Chelsea for the 2016-2017 season, following the 2016 Euros.

The 65-year-old Del Bosque is expected to retire after the European Championships.

In the meantime, however, Del Bosque must prepare to defend the European title still held by Spain, but he finds himself with limited options in the team’s attack heading into the Thursday night clash in Italy.

Diego Costa, now starring for Chelsea, was left out of the side after a series of unimpressive international outings, while Paco Alcacer of La Liga club Valencia has gone goalless over the last two months.

Del Bosque is expected to opt instead for Juventus striker Alvaro Morata and Atyletico Bilbao star Artiz Aduriz, who has netted 31 goals in his last 48 matches, to spearhead the Spain attack.

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To watch the Italy Vs. Spain international football friendly live stream, use the stream provided by WatchESPN at this link, or download the WatchESPN app to watch the game on mobile devices. Fans who do not have credentials to log in to WatchESPN can watch the match via the Sling TV internet TV package at this link. The package, which includes a variety of channels, including ESPN2, which carried the international friendly, costs $20 per month. But Sling TV offers a seven-day free trial, so subscribers can choose whether or not to keep the service after watching the Italy Vs. Spain match stream live online. A Spanish-language live stream of the game is also available at WatchESPN, at this link.

[Featured Photo By Claudio Villa/Getty Images]

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