The group stage fixture that all football fans have been waiting for at Euro 2024 takes place on Thursday evening, as Spain and Italy battle it out for Group B supremacy in Gelsenkirchen.
Both of these sides took victory on matchday one, as Spain put Croatia to the sword in a 3-0 victory before Italy responded by coming from behind to defeat Albania 2-1.
With progression to the competition’s knockout stages on the line, these two great footballing nations will again face off and add another chapter to this great fixture’s history.
- Spain to win or draw @ 2/7 with bet365
- Giovanni Di Lorenzo to be booked @ 21/20 with bet365
- Alvaro Morata to score anytime @ 2/1 with bet365
Spain to prove too strong for Italy
Although both of these sides won their opening matches at Euro 2024, Spain’s performance proved the more eye-catching of the two.
In the tournament’s ‘group of death’, Luis de la Fuente’s side faced Croatia first and, despite many pundits and football fans alike expecting a closely fought game, his Spanish team dominated from the off.
First-half goals from Alvaro Morata, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Carvajal gave the Spanish an easy win and next they’ll look to best Italy, a side who they’ve beaten in each of their previous two meetings.
These two sides have faced off at major tournaments more often than any other two sides, and even though Italy has lost just one of the prior ten such clashes, Spain comes into this match in slightly stronger form.
Now unbeaten in four and scoring three or more goals in each of those matches, the Italian defence could find it difficult to keep the Spanish frontline out in this clash.
Di Lorenzo disciplinary woes against strongest opposition
A main area where Italy could struggle in this match is down the wings as Spanish pair Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal enjoyed very strong individual performances in their opening fixture against Croatia.
With both possessing pace and skill in equal measure, the young duo will be hard to cope with for the Italian backline and Giovanni Di Lorenzo in particular, who has shown previously in his career that he can find the going difficult against the toughest opponents.
This season for Napoli, the 30-year-old full-back picked up eight yellow cards in total across 47 club appearances, causing him to receive a one-match suspension in late February.
On the international stage his seven bookings have come from just 36 caps and with those falling against the likes of England, Argentina and Belgium more often than not, a match-up with Spain could prove problematic.
Morata to continue fine international form
After enjoying a solid season for Atletico Madrid in which he struck 21 goals across 48 appearances, Morata continued his fine form by netting Spain’s opener against Croatia.
The 31-year-old latched on to a defence-splitting pass, before holding off his defender to finish coolly under the onrushing goalkeeper.
Not only did that latest strike take his tally to 36 goals in 74 caps for the Spanish national team, but it also promoted him to third spot on the European Championships all-time scoring list behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Michel Platini in the process.
His latest goal also made it three scoring appearances in succession for his country and with him being in that sort of form of late, it’s not difficult to see why he’s the favourite to find the back of the net in this match.
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