Football Previews
Argentina face Italy this Wednesday evening at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome in an international friendly match that allows both sides to prepare for upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Italy currently top their World Cup Qualification group (B) with 14 points and are unbeaten in their last 6 World Cup Qualifiers.
Argentina also top their group (26 points) despite struggling for form as of late with three draws out of their last four competitive World Cup Qualifying matches (Drew against Ecuador 1-1, Colombia 0-0 and Bolivia 1-1).
This will be Italy’s first game after losing to Uruguay in the third place play-off of the Confederations Cup.
Prior to that Italy lost narrowly on penalties (6:7) against Spain in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup.
Argentina’s last game was against Guatemala in June and they won that game comfortably (4:0).
Recent form:
Italy – W L L W W D D
Argentina – W D D D W W L
Italy have lost 2 of their last 7 while Argentina have lost just 1 game in 7.
Head-to-head
These two sides have met 6 times in recent years and nothing separates them (Italy won 2, Argentina won 2, 2 Draws).
The last 5 meetings between these two sides finished (0:3, 3:4, 1:1, 2:1 and 1:0).
Bookmakers side slightly with Italy in this tie.
Current betting odds: Italy (7/5) Draw (21/10) Argentina (21/10)
Gamingtips Prediction – Italy 3:2 Argentina
This game has all the potential to be a classic, high scoring International friendly.
Italy’s last 5 matches have had a combined total of 20 goals, Argentina’s last 5 games have a combined total of 11 goals.
Despite being top of their group, Argentina have struggled in World Cup Qualifiers in games they were expected to win and they will want to improve upon their recent performances in this game.
Italian sides are regularly praised for their strong defense but in their last 5 games, Italy have conceded 10 goals and this is something they will want to improve upon coming up against the 4th best team in the World according to FIFA’s rankings.
From a betting perspective, over 2.5 goals at odds of 6/5 offers tremedous value for punters based on the fact that Italy’s last 5 games have averaged 4 goals per game.
Lionel Messi has been named in the Argentina squad and should feature at some point if he doesn’t start.
Potential starting line-ups
Italy: Buffon, Chiellini, Bonucci, Astori, Pirlo, De Rossi, Marchisio, Montolivo, El Shaarawy, Balotelli
Argentina: Romero, Zabaleta, Garay, Coloccini, Campagnaro, Mascherano, Lamela, Banega, Di Maria, Messi, Higuain
This game gets underway at 19:45 GMT+1.
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