The Italians arrive at the European Football Championship on 14 June to defend their title. In the final three years ago, Italy beat the English after a series of 11m penalties.
The EURO 2024 champions are not facing the best conditions, with Albania, Spain, and Croatia in Group B. The only thing that can be said is that Albania is the lucky first opponent.
| ⚽ Match prediction: Albania will not score @ 1.75 |
On the other hand, the Italians can’t make any mistakes from the first match, and in this group, they must take three points against Albania.
The Italian national team is known as a tough team that doesn’t play the prettiest game, but they looked very solid at EURO 2020.
Their defence was the most remarkable – they didn’t concede a single goal in the group stage, and the final was the first match in the tournament in which they conceded the goal first. The offensive potential was also there, and the overall game certainly deserved the title.
However, the Italians arrived somewhat refreshed at EURO 2024. Several veterans have said goodbye to the national team, and the young players will take up the baton.
In addition to Matteo Darmian, 34, and Giovanni Di Lorenzo, 30, the defensive line is made up of Federico Dimarco, 26, Alessandro Boungiorno, 25, Riccardo Calafiori, 22, Federico Gatti, 25, Raoul Bellanova, 24, Gianluca Mancini, 28, Allesandro Bastoni, 25, Andrea Cambiaso, 24.
Of course, the big pillar of the defence will be the best player of EURO 2020, 25-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
There is less talent in this year’s Italian squad, but we can expect that the style of play will remain the same.
Everything should continue to be built on good defence, as we saw in the last friendly matches, with one goal conceded against Venezuela and no goals scored by Ecuador, Turkey, or Bosnia and Herzegovina in the other three matches.
Albania does not have much talent, with several players playing in the Italian championships. One of whom, Kristjan Asllani, 22, plays for Inter Milan. He did not score against Chile and Sweden in friendly matches but scored three goals each against Liechtenstein and Azerbaijan. It’s clear that Italy will be a team of a completely different level.
This EURO 2024 prediction is for guidance only and we are not responsible for your bets.