Italy vs Turkey Predictions, Betting Tips and Analysis
The delayed Euro2020 Championships finally get underway on June 11 with the curtain-raiser game between Turkey and Italy at the Stadio Olimpico. Italian fans will be hoping that the Azzurri can return to tournament form having missed out on the 2018 World Cup while Turkey will want to do better than Euro2016 when they bowed out at the group stage.
Form
Turkey come into this game having lost only twice in their last eleven games stretching back to September 2020, with both defeats coming against Hungary in the Nations League qualifiers. However, the Crescent-Stars have drawn six of those 11 games and come into the tournament having blown a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 against Latvia in Istanbul in their last competitive game. They have three warm up games against Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland and Moldova in the run up to the start and will be looking to improve on their defence which has kept one clean sheet in nine games.
Italy on the other hand come in on a roll, having won their last five competitive internationals in a row including 2-0 away wins over Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Lithuania. Admittedly, Turkey will be a step up in class over those three nations but it’s a measure of how well Italy’s defence have performed that they have only conceded one goal in their last ten games. Italy face San Marino and the Czech Republic in two warm up games before welcoming Turkey to Rome.
Injuries
Turkey have named a 30-strong preliminary squad for the warm-up games before the tournament, including four Premier League players in Ozan Kabak (Liverpool), Okay Yokuslu (West Bromwich Albion) along with Caglar Soyuncu and Cengiz Under (both Leicester). Kabak has been out of the Liverpool team the last few weeks with injury and it is touch and go if he will be fit enough for the Euro2020 squad. Captain Burak Yilmaz comes into the tournament having scored 16 goals for Lille to help them win the Ligue 1 title.
Italy have named an extensive squad for their first warm-up game with San Marino, and will need to cut it to 26 for the tournament. One of the players who has not made the cut is Roma attacking midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo, who suffered an ACL injury last September and has not recovered in time for the tournament. Experienced Sassuolo forward Francesco Caputo has also missed out having had an injury hit season for the Black and Greens.
Game Prediction
The favourites for this game undoubtedly have to be Italy. They’re playing in front of their home crowd, are on a great run of competitive results and have never lost an international match to Turkey. Turkey on the other hand have struggled in some games although the 4-2 win over the Netherlands in March is a good reason why they shouldn’t be written off out of hand.
Opening games of a tournament are always hard to call because they often throw up surprises, but this looks unlikely here. Italy are very short priced to win this game and as such we think the handicap markets offer the best value.