Italy vs Austria: Preview and Prediction

Saturday 26th June 2021

Italy vs Austria: Preview and Prediction

European Championships 2020
Saturday 26th June 2021
Kick off at 8pm GMT
Venue: Wembley Stadium

Match Preview:

There are many in the media suggesting that Italy are playing very un-italian and look good for it with more attacking play. The truth is Italy have played with more of an attacking slant for the past decade now as Serie A has tried to catch up to the pace of La Liga and the Premier League and that has influenced the national team too. But what is so enthralling about the Italians is that they still know when to shut up shop and defend, they are the masters of it and that means that the Azzurri will surely be a difficult opponent for any other team to beat.

Italy will be the odds on favourites to win this and advance to the quarter finals, and at least on paper they should have few problems. The Italians were brilliant in the group stages and controlled Turkey in their opening game, something that the Turkish side never quite got over. 

Ciro Immobile looks like the classic Italian striker and he has been in good form and already scored two goals. But some of the newer faces have impressed too in the likes of Nicola Barella and Leonardo Spinnazzola who may just have the coolest sounding surname in European football, lucky for him he has the tactical nous too and absolutely belongs in this team. Coach Roberto Mancini looks assured and like his captain Giorgio Chiellini they were both meant to exist in football for the biggest tournaments.

Austria have had their troubles, centered around Marko Arnautovic, a good striker on his day who has already lost the plot in this competition which led to a flurry of misguided words to another opponent, and a 1 game ban, it could have and should have been more. Still the other side to Arnautovic the former West Ham player is goals and he has his name on that check list in Euro 2020.

The Austrians qualified from Group C finishing runners- up to the Netherlands. In their opening game they made light work of North Macedonia beating them 3-1. A real test of their strengths came against the Netherlands and they lost that game 2-0. But Austria bounced back and beat Ukraine 1-0 to finish on six points and ease into the knock out stages.

 

Team News: 

Italy: Alessandro Florenzi and Giorgio Chiellini are expected not to make it for this game with slight injuries, however they will face late assessments. Federico Chiesa could replace Domenico Berardi in attack after his showing in the Italians last game.

Austria: The big worry for the nation was the head injury to striker Christophe Baumgartner but he will be fine. 

 

Italy vs Austria Head to Head:

The teams have not met since 2008 when in a friendly they drew 2-2.

Austria have not beaten Italy since 1960.

This will be the first time that the nations have played in a European Championship finals.

3 of the last five meetings has seen both teams to score.

 

Italy vs Austria Prediction:

Italy are around 1.44 to win this game and it looks hard to see past them. We should expect them to have more possession and more chances but that doesn’t mean Austria won’t be a threat on goal. These type of fixtures could easily finish 1-0 to the favourites but Austria are not sluggish and one would expect that the Italians would need two goals to win this one.

As for goalscorers Immobile has impressed and is full of energy when he plays. The good news is that he was rested in the last group game as Italy had already qualified and he will be raring to go here.

For some other value if the game goes to plan it might be worth backing Austria to see red at one point. This is a team that could go physical if they are being outclassed. Presently though we only see one winner in this game and that is Italy.

 

Italy vs Austria Betting Tips:

Asian handicap (-1 Italy) at 1.88

Anytime goalscorer: Ciro Immobile at 2.40

Game to have a red card at 5.00

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