Italy vs Albania prediction: EUROPE: Euro betting tips on match 2024-06-14 19:00.
[p]Defending champions Italy will begin their Euro 2024 campaign here at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund and given the difficulty of Group B, they’ll be hoping to start with a win against group minnows Albania in order to reach the knockout stages of a major European tournament for the fifth consecutive time. Buoyed by the fact that they’ve won ‘to-nil’ in their last two opening matches at the European Championships (Turkey 3-0, Belgium 2-0), a similar prospect cannot be written off here.[/p]
[p]Coach Luciano Spalletti, who took over last september after the unexpected resignation of Euro 2020 winning manager Roberto Mancini, lost two important defenders in Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini to injury before the tournament, but was still able to lead his team to back-to-back clean sheets in friendly matches against Turkey (0-0) and Bosnia (1-0). He’ll now hope that his side can deliver similar again here, as Italy have conceded just once across their last six group-stage Euro matches (W5, L1).[/p]
[p]Albania arrive at just their second-ever major European tournament after finishing third in the group stages back in 2016, when they beat Romania, whilst losing to Switzerland and France. They qualified for this edition after topping their qualifying group ahead of the Czech Republic and Poland (W4, D3, L1) and Sylvinho’s side have since boosted their form even further with two comfortable friendly victories ahead of this tournament, both of which saw them score exactly three goals.[/p]
[p]A closely-fought, tactical match could be on cards here, as Albania conceded just four goals in total during their qualification campaign, whilst they’ve conceded more than once in just two of their last 15 matches overall. However, one of those matches came against Italy, when they lost 3-1 back in 2022, and as they’ve lost all four H2Hs since 2014, this opening fixture will likely prove a real test.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: All Italian eyes will be on Gianluca Scamacca who has scored 19 competitive goals for Atalanta this season, with eleven arriving before half-time. Playing for Italian side Sassuolo, Nedim Bajrami will have extra motivation here and he’s also contributed to three goals in Albania’s last two matches (G1, A2).[/p]
[p]Hot stat: Italy have lost just once in their opening match at the European Championships (W4, D4).[/p]