Belgium vs Italy
The final game of three in Euro2016 on Monday is potentially the biggest game of the entire opening round of matches as Belgium take on Italy in Lyon. This Group E clash could go a long way to deciding top spot in the group with many expecting these two to be better than Sweden and Republic of Ireland, the other two sides in the section.
With that in mind the winners here will set themselves for up a big tournament while the losers will give themselves some extra work to do which isn’t ideal at this stage of the competition so this is a big game for both sides.
Belgium qualified ahead of Wales to make it into this tournament. You have to say a side that has the talented players that this Belgian one does shouldn’t be failing to score twice against an average Wales over two matches so something is immediately wrong there. I wonder if their star players are just off the top of their form.
The Belgians go into this tournament off the back of a solid World Cup campaign although many judges expected them to go deep in that competition. They have some of the best individuals in this tournament but whether they can function successfully as a team remains to be seen.
Key Man
Kevin de Bruyne is one man in this Belgian attack who goes into the tournament off the back of a strong domestic campaign and if they are to go well here he could be the one who opens the door for the likes of Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku among others. De Bruyne carries genuine star quality and this big stage should bring it out of him.
The Italians were the runners up in this tournament four years ago and always outperform the general expectation when it comes to the big tournaments but if you look at this Italian side it doesn’t look anything like as strong as sides they have had in the past.
One thing they do have at their disposal is a wonderful manager who is capable of galvanising a side and getting them to play free flowing and attacking football and Antonio Conte leaves the job after this tournament to take over at Chelsea so he will hope to sign off in style.
Key Man
Daniele Di Rossi remains the driving force in the middle of the park. He is the one who makes them tick and if he plays well the side generally play well around that so he is the key man for the Italians in this opening game.
Team News
Eden Hazard apparently picked up a knock in training recently but he is expected to be fit to feature but there will be no Vincent Kompany for Belgium in this tournament as the Man City centre back misses the competition with injury.
Italy are likely to go with Southampton forward Graziano Pelle up front which highlights where their weakness is. Riccardo Montolivo, Claudio Marchisio and Marco Verratti are all missing the tournament with injuries.
Head to Head
Italy have a pretty strong record against Belgium although recently it has begun to level out a little bit. In the 21 matches they have played overall Italy have won 13 with Belgium winning four and drawing four but only two of the last seven games have gone the way of Italy.
Betting
I’m still not convinced by this Belgium side. They never really impressed me at all in qualifying and while this is a different story now they never really set the World Cup alight so for all the talk that this is a golden generation for Belgium I’m not really feeling it.
There is no doubt they have some wonderfully talented footballers although there is no doubt the likes of Eden Hazard, Marouane Fellaini and Christian Benteke were much more effective two years ago than they currently are.
Belgium do have plenty of options so if things aren’t going their way they can certainly change things but I can’t get away from the fact they laboured through qualifying. Something just doesn’t sit right with me where they are concerned.
I’ve not really got a feel for this match either way but I am on Italy to win the group so I don’t really need to look deep for a bet which deep down I don’t really fancy. Instead I’ll sit and watch and hope Italy do the business to aid the group bet.
Tips
No Bet
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ITALY TO WIN 12/1 OR BELGIUM TO WIN – 8/1
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