Welcome to Italy versus Azerbaijan at the Stadio Renza Barbera in Palermo. Italy and Croatia already look rather comfortable at the summit of Group H, but can Azerbaijan spring a surprise against the Azzuri?

And we're underway as Azerbaijan kick-off!

While Italy's strikers will expect goals, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon could earn his 57th clean sheet for his country. Extraordinary.

It's an excellent atmosphere in Palermo, on the absurdly beautiful island of Sicily.

The players are out on the pitch and the brassy Azerbaijan anthem plays out in Palermo.

In 20 years, Azerbaijan have only won 9 of their 99 competetive games. Could they make it 10 out of 100 tonight? It would be the best result in their history if they could.

Azerbaijan have been coached by veteran German manager Berti Vogts since 2008. Widely panned for his spell with Scotland, Vogts has found a much better fit with the Milli.

Simone Zaza impressed against Norway in Italy's opening Group H qualifier. The Sassuolo man will be expecting to score against the side ranked 95th in the FIFA World rankings tonight.

Pirlo moves into 4th in the list of all-time Italy appearances tonight. What an incredible player he has been... and continues to be.

With Croatia facing a tough away game in Bulgaria tonight, Conte will be hoping his side can push ahead of them in Group H. With the top two sides automatically qualifying from the groups this time around, it's very hard to see how the Azzuri can fail.

Azerbaijan captain Rashad Sadygov is the most capped player in the country's history, with 97 appearances so far. The 32-year-old defender enjoyed spells playing in Turkey, but he has now retuned to the domestic league in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan have never made it to a major tournament since the break-up of the Soviet Union, but they finished above Northern Ireland in their World Cup 2014 qualifying group.

Could Graziano Pelle make his debut for Italy tonight? The Southampton man has been in excellent form since moving to the Premier League and was picked above Mario Balotelli.

Azerbaijan lost their opening qualifier against Bulgaria, which could be a very costly result. With Italy and Croatia in the Group, getting third spot and a playoff spot appears to be their only hope of making it to Euro 2016. Even that looks very remote now.

It's been a comfortable start to life for Antonio Conte as the Italy manager, with consecutive 2-0 wins over the Netherlands and Norway. Perhaps his biggest triumph, however, has been convicing Andrea Pirlo to delay his retirement.

ITALY: Buffon, Ranocchia, Bonucci, Chiellini, Darmian, Florenzi, Pirlo, Marchisio, De Sciglio; Zaza, Immobile... SUBS: Pelle, Sirigu, Verratti, Destro, Parolo, Pasqual, Giovinco, Perin, Candreva, Aquilani, Ogbonna.

/// AZERBAIJAN: Agayev, Shukurov, Sadygov, Guseynov, Budak, Garayev, Abbasov, Nazarov, Aliyev, Javadov, Dadasov... SUBS: Quliyev, Nadirov, Aghayev, Ramaldanov, Yunuszada, Budak, Huseynov, Ilter, Qurbanov, Balayev.