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Steffen Schmidt - June 12, 2023
Spain vs Italy
UEFA Nations League
Date: 15 June 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 19:45 UK / 20:45 CET
Venue: De Grolsch Veste (Enschede).
Spain and Italy meet each other in the replay of the 2021 UEFA Nations League semifinal on Thursday evening at De Grolsch Veste in Enschede.
The two European heavyweights will battle it out at the very same stage of the same competition, this time on Dutch soil.
Spain made it to final four thanks to a late Alvaro Morata goal in the last match in Group A2 against Portugal.
Since then, La Furia Roja have replaced boss Luis Enrique with the former Under-19 and Under 21 manager Luis de la Fuente.
De la Fuente had semi success in his inaugural competitive affairs in charge, beating Norway 3-0 before falling 2-0 in Scotland at the beginning of the 2024 EURO qualifiers.
Italy made amends for missing out on the 2022 World Cup by going through the UEFA Nations League group past the likes of Germany, England, and Hungary.
Azzurri did get off to a slow start to the 2024 EURO qualifications after a 1-2 home defeat to the Three Lions in March.
Roberto Mancini will rely on his team’s defensive efforts in this final-four tournament, knowing Azzurri kept three clean sheets in the last four Nations League affairs (against England twice, Hungary, and Germany once).
We have seen some very important head to head encounters between these rivals in the last decade. Vast majority of these were low-scoring outings. We expect a very similar scenario this time around as the Under 2.5 goals FT looks like the best betting option at the 1.61 odds.
Alternatively, we fancy Italy to keep a clean sheet in the 90 minutes of play at the odds of 3.40, knowing they have kept their net untouched in three of the last four Nations League ties despite a very challenging set of rivals in the process.
