Scotland will welcome Italy to Easter Road on 25 April when the two Under-21s sides meet in a Vauxhall International Challenge Match. National Youth Teams Coach Billy Stark will use the game as part of his preparation for Scotland’s remaining UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying games. Stark will enjoy pitting his wits against his Italian counterpart Ciro Ferrara before continuing to the qualifying games in May against Bulgaria away from home. Scotland are in UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying action later this month when they take on the Netherlands on Wednesday, 29 February at St Mirren Park.
Stark said: "This fixture (against Italy) will be a good test for us as Italy are an excellent side and like us, they have aspirations of reaching the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals next summer. They have won all five of their qualification matches so far and will provide us with difficult opposition. We have started our own qualifying campaign positively and this match, alongside our qualifier against the Netherlands later this month, will give us a good indication of the progress I believe we have made. All of our qualifying matches for this campaign have been based at St Mirren Park but we wanted to ensure that supporters from around the country had the opportunity to watch the under-21s and Easter Road is the perfect venue for a match like this. We received tremendous backing when we played our play-off from the last campaign at Easter Road and I am confident that support will be there for this match in April."
Vauxhall Under-21 International
Scotland v Italy
Wednesday, 25 April 2012, kick-off 7pm
Easter Road Stadium, Edinburgh