Date / Kick-Off Time / Venue / Channel
17th October / 19:45 BST / Wembley Stadium / Channel 4
It’s back to EURO 2024 qualification for England after a tense encounter with Australia in a friendly. Ollie Watkins returned to the line-up and scored the only goal in a game where Gareth Southgate heavily rotated his squad. There was no time for stars like Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham who have been rested for this upcoming fixture with Italy.
Both teams sit at the top of Group C with Ukraine nipping at the heels of the Italians. Italy aren’t the guaranteed qualifiers that they used to be any longer, having missed the last two World Cups. They will be very weary of the threat Ukraine pose to their EURO 2024 chances.
England have really struggled to get the best of the Azzurri in recent years, with the victory in this campaign being the first since 2012. The six matches in between these two wins were not fruitful for the Three Lions and even included the devastating EURO final defeat to hand Italy major international silverware.
Victory against Italy will confirm their spot at EURO 2024 due to the H2H rule leaving only second place up for grabs in Group C.
Team News
John Stones has returned from a hip injury and was given some much needed minutes against Australia to condition him up to match fitness.
As was the case against Australia, Bukayo Saka is the only major player that Southgate is missing from his squad due to injury.
Nicolo Zaniolo and Sandro Tonali have been removed from the Italy squad due to off the field issues which leaves two huge holes in the Italian squad.
Luciano Spalletti likes to rotate his squad from game-to-game so any combination of; Moise Kean, Giacomo Raspadori, Domenico Berardi, Gianliuca Scamacca, Riccardo Orsolini or Stephan El Shaarawy could start on Tuesday.
Prediction
With so much at stake, this game will be a cagey affair with neither team wanting to lose. A point for both sides will be beneficial for staving off the Ukrainian challenge for second place. Top European talent is boasted throughout both squads who are conditioned to rise to such occasions.
Therefore, we are predicting a draw here with both teams getting on the scoresheet.
England 1-1 Italy
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