ITALY meet Switzerland in Rome on Wednesday night in Group B. Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his favourite fancies.
Italy vs Switzerland | Saturday 12th June 2020, 20:00 | ITV
Two of the more impressive teams in the opening round of fixtures at Euro 2020 face off in Rome tomorrow night, as Italy take on Switzerland.
The Azzurri were excellent in dispatching Turkey by three goals to nil, recording 24 attempts on goal, eight of which were on target, while their opponents failed to force Gianluigi Donnarumma into a single save.
Switzerland also impressed me when they faced Wales and they will surely view that 1-1 draw as a case of two points dropped. The Swiss had 18 shots to their opponents nine and if it wasn’t for the heroics of Welsh keeper Danny Ward then they would have opened their campaign with a victory.
As it is, they find themselves in a sticky situation now as they are likely to need a victory against either Italy or Turkey in one of their remaining fixtures if they are to progress from Group A. They will know that Turkey is the easier fixture so I expect them to be quite defensive in this encounter and wait for Italy to break them down.
Italy’s 3-0 victory over Turkey was their eighth in a row without conceding. During that run, they have won five by two goals to nil, so it is unsurprisingly I am going to take the 6/1 with Bet365 on a 2-0 victory for the home side.
I would have 20% of my usual stake on that and the remainder on Italy to win and under 3.5 goals to be scored, which is 21/20 with Boylesports. I thought Switzerland looked a lot better going forward than I expected against Wales and do think the pace of Breel Embolo will cause The Azzuri backline some problems, so like this as a safe alternative as it keeps 2-1 on side!
Elsewhere, Domenico Berardi looks a tad big at 5/2 in the ‘Anytime Goalscorer’ market. Berardi has scored in five of his 12 matches for Italy, managed 17 goals in 30 games for Sassuolo in Serie A last season and was impressive in his sides opening match of this competition. I expect him to cause The Swiss plenty of problems here and think backing him to score is worth a small play.
Best Bets
Italy vs Switzerland – Italy to win and under 3.5 goals (21/20 Boylesports)
Italy vs Switzerland – Italy to win 2-0 (6/1 Bet365)
Italy vs Switzerland – Domenico Berardi to score (5/2 Skybet)
