UEFA Nations League: Italy vs. England Preview, Odds, Prediction

Italy hosts England in the derby of the UEFA Nations League round 5. Though, when looking at the standings, it doesn’t seem that way because these two units are at the bottom of the same. Italy has five points in four games, while England has just two, and is under a direct threat of relegation to the B division. Italy and England were deciding about the European title last year, and since then, they haven’t been particularly confident. England did secure its place at the upcoming World Cup, while on the other side, Italy failed to do so.

Preview

Italy (+180) comes to this event as an underdog. They have a few players absent, but nothing special, and that’s not the reason for their poor odds. Playing badly in recent times on the other hand, is, and Italy has just one win in the last five matches, which was a 2-1 triumph over Hungary at home.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen them losing to Argentina in a friendly game 0-2, having two draws at home to Germany, 1-1. and on the road in England, 0-0. Yet the most recent clash ended with a terrible, 5-2 loss against the Germans away from home.

We saw an inferior performance of the European champions, who were in trouble securing possession, losing the ball pretty quickly under German pressure. In the end, allowing five goals came as a consequence of such a mediocre display.

England (+150) is without a win in the past four matches. The Three Lions lost to Hungary on the road, 1-0, before posting a pair of draws, 1-1 in Germany and 0-0 at home to Italy.

After these events came a knockout at Wembley, where we saw Hungary triumphing 0-4, inflicting the hosts one of its worst home defeats in the last decade or even more.

Gareth Southgate’s unit was broken in every aspect of play back then, displaying a shameful effort, which is why the fans didn’t have any understanding for the players following the event. What is troubling for Southgate is the fact that his team didn’t score in three of the previous four events.

Latest News

There isn’t too much interesting news for the moment regarding injuries or something else. Italy doesn’t have Insigne, Bernardeschi, Chiellini, who are in the MLS.

England summoned Jordan Henderson instead of Kalvin Phillips, who was injured.

Head to Head Games

The previous game, which was in the UNL, saw a goalless draw at Wembley. The one before was also at Wembley, and Italy won that after the penalties. If you forgot, that was the final of the EURO.

The previous four were all under 2.5 goals.

Prediction

We have to suggest one unusual bet here, and that would be for both teams to score. Even though the respective attacks aren’t in some notable form, the defenses on both ends are terrible, and we believe there is enough potential to see Italy and England hitting the back of the net at least once. The odds on that are -110, which is solid and has value.

Pick: Both teams to score -110