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Italy v Albania
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Kick Off: Saturday 15th June at 20:00
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Watch Live: ITV1
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Competition: Euro 2024
The defending champions, Italy, face off against Albania in their second appearance at a European Championship. With games against Croatia and Spain to come, this is must-win for Italy for their hopes of clutching guaranteed qualification, while Albania will be desperate to get points on the board.
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Italy come into the game as clear favourites, but the Albanians shouldn’t be underestimated. Albania showed great strength in qualifying, topping their group ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland, both of whom have also qualified for the tournament.
Given the close proximity of the two nations and the large Albanian diaspora within Italy, as well as the fact that a large number of the Albanian squad play in Serie A and B, this should make for a fascinating encounter.
Italy v Albania Best Bets
Italy have kept four clean sheets in their last five games and Luciano Spalletti seems to have got his defence working in unison. Given Albania’s struggles to score against higher-quality opponents and Italy’s tournament experience, it looks like Italy could scrape through this game without conceding.
Keeping with the theme of the best bet, Albania look likely to make life difficult for the Italians and they have proved that they can be well organised at the back.
Given Italy’s lack of real cutting edge in attack, relying on an occasionally brilliant but inconsistent Gianluca Scamacca upfront and Chiesa coming back to full fitness, they may take a while to break down this Albanian backline.
Chiesa is on a journey back to full fitness after a tough season plagued by injury problems and poor form, and he’ll be heavily relied upon by the Italians for a creative spark in a team desperately lacking world-class attacking talent.
He registered a shot on target against Bosnia and Herzegovina in his last friendly and four against Macedonia in a 60-minute outing at the back end of last year. If he lasts the 90 minutes, he has a very good chance of hitting at least two shots on target.
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📂 Italy v Albania Cheat Sheet
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You can find Italy v Albania match stats, on my bet builder stats tool, along with official line-ups one hour before kick-off.
⚔️ Italy v Albania Head-to-Head
The two sides have met on four previous occasions, with Italy winning all four previous encounters.
Albania have kept the scorelines respectable, however, narrowly losing two of those games 1-0 and by just 2 goals in the other two fixtures. There has not been a competitive encounter between these two since October 2017 and, therefore, it is important not to factor the record into your thinking for predicting this game too much.
📊 Italy Form and Stats
The Azzurri have lost just one of their last 11 games, a qualifier against England back in October, and under Luciano Spalletti that is the only defeat of his reign so far.
They struggled somewhat by their high standards in qualifying, narrowly beating Ukraine to second place in the group and they came a penalty call away from having to enter the Euros via the play-offs. They averaged 2.0 goals per game and conceded nine goals in their eight games.
In a group also containing North Macedonia and Malta, it’s fair to say it wasn’t the most spectacular of qualifying campaigns but after failing to qualify for the last World Cup, it can still be seen as a sign of progress.
In the run-up to the tournament, the Italians have narrowly beaten Bosnia and been held to a 0-0 draw by Turkey.
📊 Albania Form and Stats
Albania had an excellent qualifying campaign, losing just one of their eight games. Goals were hard to come by, with just 12 scored in those eight games.
However, their defence was rock solid with just 0.5 goals per game conceded. A caveat should come with this, that their group contained the Czech Republic, Poland, Moldova, and the Faroe Islands but as the old adage goes, you can only beat what’s put in front of you.
Their two warm-up friendlies were against Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein, where they scored a combined six goals with just one goal conceded. Surprisingly the Albanian FA opted against playing any stronger sides in the run-up to the tournament and considering the three teams they are up against in this group, that may not have been the best preparation.
* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.
* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.
Written by an Andy verified content writer
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