Friendly International: Italy vs. Germany Preview, Odds, Prediction

Italy wants to heal its wounds from the recent World Cup playoffs against Germany. They will be one of those rare continent champions who aren’t going to show up at the World Cup, and to be honest, that is a shock nobody expected. Germany, on the other hand, starts its Qatar mission with this event. Hansi Flick has a lot on his mind, and he wants to try out all of the tactical variants before things get serious. The venue of the event is Renato All’Ara in Bologna.

Preview

Italy (+145) lost the advance to the World Cup in the last two events of the group stage, playing 1-1 with Switzerland at home and 0-0 on the road in Northern Ireland. After that they would suffer a shocking defeat to North Macedonia at home in the playoff semis, 0-2, which pretty much knocked out the entire country.

It seems that the victorious run at the EURO dazzled the team and the players who were relaxed after that success. The Italians won only three games since the finals in London, playing four draws and losing twice. May we say that after winning the European title they won only one event in the World Cup qualifiers. The most recent event was against Argentina in Finalissima, which ended with their tough loss, 0-3.

This team is tactically gifted and has a very strong chemistry, with several players able to take over the playmaking responsibility in the midfield. When playing competitive matches, low efficiency is guaranteed, with under 2.5 goals coming in more than 80% of the same.

Germany (+180) had eight straight wins until the most recent draw against the Netherlands in late March, 1-1. Hansi Flick is trying to copy/paste Bayern’s model on the national team, but he needs a player like Lewandowski, who would be in the center of the attack. Previously, this unit had Gomez and Klose, who were in that role, but now, the Germans have a deficit of robust strikers.

Since losing to England at the EURO, Germany conceded three goals in nine games, while on the other side, failing to score twice or more against the Netherlands only. Though, their rivals weren’t that strong, Armenia, Liechtenstein, Israel, Iceland, and Romania.

They play strong, efficient, and with lots of intensity, as said, similar to Bayern once Flick led this unit to the European throne.

Latest News

We don’t have any notable news on the injured or suspended players on both teams.

Head to Head Games

The last meetings between these great nations were in 2016, when they played three times. Germany won in the first friendly international,4-1. Italy got even in France at EURO, eliminating the Germans in the quarterfinals after penalties, and there was one more friendly after that without goals.

Prediction

Italy’s defense hasn’t been up to the task in the past few events, and that is the biggest reason why we believe that Germany is in a better position to win this event. Though, since this is a low-intensity game, our safest bet here would be for both teams to score. The odds on that are at -125.

Pick: Both teams to score -125