Italy vs. Spain: preview and betting tips

The postponed European Championships already know their semi-finalists. That means we’re down to the last three games. The first finalist will come from the southern European teams. The absolutely dominant Italy and Spain, who are going through the tournament with their ears very much rubbed, will face each other.

The Italians have already gone through the preliminary group without conceding a goal and advanced from first place. There were many warnings ahead of the eighth-finals that the knockout stage was a different story altogether. And the Italians almost paid for it. In the eighth round they had to face perhaps unexpected resistance from the Austrians, who held on until extra time.

There, the Italians won the extra time thanks to the substitutions of Pessina and Chiesa, but their performance was much less dominant than in the main group. It was much better against Belgium, where the Italians defended practically the whole second half, but showed much more than against Austria.

Spain have only played one good game so far on the whole, winning 5-0 against Slovakia. But otherwise, they have recorded 4 draws in their 4 remaining games, and that certainly doesn’t look good.

Already in the group, Luis Enrique’s charges were on the verge of elimination before they demolished our eastern neighbours and secured promotion from second place in Group E. In the eighth round, it looked for a long time that the Spaniards would take Croatia in their stride.

But that would not be without a collapse in the final minutes, when it was the Croatians who forced extra time and eventually suffered defeat after extra time. The winning goal was scored by the by then struggling Alvaro Morata.

The quarter-final against Switzerland was similar and even worse. There, the Spaniards even had to go through penalties, despite playing almost 45 minutes (including extra time) of power play.

The favourite of this match is absolutely clear. And if Italy doesn’t advance to the final, it will be a surprise. And the Italians should go into the title fight with a class difference. This pick is pretty bold, but relatively interesting based on the results of this year’s tournament.