After cruising through the group stage at the UEFA EURO 2020, Italy takes on Austria in the Round of 16. Roberto Mancini’s team will go for a 12th consecutive win in the contest.
All of Italy’s wins during the current streak have come with a clean sheet and bookmaker 10Bet has the odds at 2.15 for them to pick up another victory without giving up a single goal.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: June 25rd, 8:30 A.M. (EST)
Not many expected Italy to make much noise at the tournament, but they started off with an impressive win over Turkey and have looked rock-solid in the following outings as well.
The team has showcased great consistency and the action in the Euros continues for Italy with a 30-game unbeaten run. They can set a new national team record by avoiding defeat again against Austria. It would be another step closer to a world record, which stands at 35 games and is shared by Spain and Brazil.
The team’s confidence should be sky-high at the moment. They boast a great scoring rate at the tournament and it’s also been very difficult for the opposition to generate chances against the Azzurri, who have allowed only two shots on target.
England were the only other side that managed to keep a clean sheet in every group stage outing and only the Netherlands scored more (8) than Italy’s seven goals. Mancini’s men also boast the second-most shot attempts (60) and the third-most shots on target (17).
Austria have a decent head-to-head record in the matchup with 12 wins to Italy’s 16, but it’s going to take a huge effort to improve it here.
Beating Italy will require a real team performance with everybody willing to put in a shift and you will definitely need great finishing as there won’t be many chances available.
Austria recorded a decent amount of shots during the group stage with 37 but the level of competition was very different. They met one high-level opposition in the Netherlands and whilst they enjoyed a few good spells in the game, Franco Foda’s team still ended up with just one shot on target.
Foda will have to get his tactics spot-on here. He ditched a three-man defensive system for a more traditional four-man set up in the final group stage outing against Ukraine and it resulted in Austria’s best performance of the tournament. The team played some very good free-flowing stuff in attack, but it will be extremely difficult to replicate it on Saturday.
