The debate regarding Italy taking the knee ahead of games at Euro 2020 continues, and it’s still not sure if the Azzurri players will kneel ahead of Austria tonight.
When five players joined the Wales players kneeling in the third match of Group A, the debate started and has dominated the build-up to Saturday’s last 16 clash with Austria.
Leonardo Bonucci, who has taken over the captaincy after Giorgio Chiellini suffered an injury against Switzerland, discussed the topic during the pre-match press conference on Friday.
It was reported that the Azzurri had decided as a group to not take the knee, but the Juventus defender insisted the squad had not discussed whether all the players would take the knee or if they would all stand ahead of the match at Wembley.
“When we get back to the hotel, we’ll have a team meeting and will make a decision together as a group on what to do tomorrow. We should’ve done that before Wales, too,” Bonucci told the reporters.
“We’ll discuss it if everyone wants to make this anti-racism gesture.”
Since then, a meeting has reportedly been held and Sky Sport Italia and ANSA have claimed the Azzurri will take the knee if the other team does so out of ‘solidarity’.
The Italian spokesman at the press conference yesterday also confirmed reports that Austria have not requested a moment for the Black Lives Matter protest and Italy reportedly maintain that racism ‘should be fought in a different way’, but are expected to kneel ahead of the game if the Austria players do.