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It is 5,500 miles, more or less, from Rome to Baku and back. That’s as the crow flies, though a cursory search suggests that crows fly substantially straighter than most major international airlines. They tend to divert through Munich or Istanbul or Moscow, even, which adds considerably to the distance.

If it is not a journey many make all that often, it is a route that several thousand will become familiar with this summer. Rome and Baku are the two host cities for games in Group A at next year’s European Championship. Italy, the one team already assured its place in that pool, will play all of its game on home turf, in Rome.

The three teams that will join the Azzurri in the group when the draw for the tournament is made in Bucharest on Saturday, on the other hand, will all have one game in Italy, and one in Azerbaijan. At some point, their players will have to make that long journey. More important, so too will hundreds, if not thousands, of fans.