Facing Italian in contest (8)
I believe the answer is:
opposite
'facing' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'italian in contest' is the wordplay.
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'contest' becomes 'oppose' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'it' put into 'oppose' is 'OPPOSITE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for opposite that I've seen before include "Face to face or directly contrary" , "Oppose it, being faced against" , "Directly facing each other" , "Antithetical, vis-a-vis at" , "antipodean" .)