Are Italians Illyrians?

Italians don't "score" closer to Illyrians than Albanians. Modern Italians just have a sort of similar component ratio because of the admixture of northern migrants and southern Italian-like populations. This means that their ancestry has nothing to do with Illyrians. If they did have actual Illyrian ancestry, then they would carry Y-DNA/mtDNA lineages linked to Illyrians but their levels are not comparable to Albanians.(1)

Italians are a mixture of Celto-Germanic, Italic/Etruscan, and Levantine/Anatolian populations. When these three groups are combined, Italians plot near them on a PCA because their genetic makeup reflects a mix of these ancestries, causing them to cluster in that area."