Italy look for three points in Euro 2020 Qualifiers as they take on Greece away
Kick-off : 9:45 PM (Local)
Venue : Athens Olympic Stadium, Athens
Italy after the disappointment of not being in last year’s World Cup finals will have turned their attention towards qualifying for 2020 European Championships. UEFA Nations League wasn’t fruitful either.
Gli Azzurri are in a tricky group containing the likes of Greece, Bosnia Herzegovina, Finland, Armenia and Liechtenstein. So work is not going to be easy but if you aim for glory then obviously work needs to be put in. FIFA world ranking ain’t good either given the Italian standards of 17, so improvements needed.
Italy have won both of their matches this year and in the 2020 Euro Qualifiers defeating Finland and the Liechtenstein. They are on top of Group J after 2 games with six points. The most positive thing is that they have goal difference of +8 already and are yet to concede, so solid display.
But Italy will have to carry such form in major games coming up in June against tough opponents in the Greeks and Bosnians. Greece will be a threat away and Italy will have to play very well to keep a clean sheet and score and win.
On the other hand, Greece have had a mixed start to this year, winning one, drawing one and loosing one game thus far. So Ethniki will have work to do in remaining 2019 playing quality football.
Greece beat Liechtenstein 2-0 and then drew with major rivals Bosnia Herzegovina 2-2 to be four points from 2 games so far. In Italy they have got world class opponents against whom home advantage should count and performance levels must be high in order to achieve three points.
Italy have a good record against Greece and they will look to continue the good work.
Team news and possible line-ups
Sokratis Papastathopoulos will captain Greece against Italy.
As for the Gli Azzurri, Matteo Politano and Cristiano Piccini will both be unavailable as due to injuries.
Greece XI : Vlachodimos, Sokratis, Manolas, Siovas, Stafylidis, Samaris, Bouchalakis, Koutris, Zeca, Fortounis, Donis.
Italy XI : Sirigu, De Sciglio, Bonucci, Chiellini, Biraghi, Verratti, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Kean, Immobile, Bernardeschi.
Prediction
It’s difficult to predict the outcome of this game between two good sides. But I think Italy will slightly edge Greece here. I am going for a 1-0 Italian win here.
