Gareth Southgate experimented on Friday as England’s World Cup preparation got off to a winning start.
The Three Lions won a truly boring contest in the Netherlands 1-0 thanks to a Jese Lingard strike, but Italy who are recovering from a shock failure to qualify for the World Cup should give them a tougher test.
Lingard’s impressive showing and Dele Alli’s rather poor cameo could see the Manchester United man start ahead of him in Russia, but this game offers them both another chance to impress.
England haven’t lost any of their last 7 games, but they have drawn against their biggest opponents at home including Brazil and Germany, while winning against lesser opponents like Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Netherlands.
Italy will be tougher opponents on Tuesday, but the Azurri did fail to qualify for the World cup and lost their last friendly game in Manchester against a Messi-less Argentina.
The Italians have lost just twice in their last 13 games against England and they have tasted defeat only once against England in the last 20 years.
They also have a solid defence that can easily shut out this struggling England attack.
Results of each team’s last 5 matches across all leagues and competitions
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