Matchday 1 in Group B of Euro 2024. Italy vs Albania. The game kicks off on June 15 at 20:00 (BST) at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Italy – Albania: Prediction and betting odds, statistics for the Euro 2024 match.
Potential line-ups for Italy vs Albania
Italy (5-2-3): Gianluigi Donnarumma – Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco, Alessandro Buongiorno, Matteo Darmian, Andrea Cambiaso – Jorginho, Bryan Cristante – Federico Chiesa, Davide Frattesi, Cianluca Scamacca.
Albania (4-3-3): Etrit Berisha – Mario Mitaj, Arlind Ajeti, Ardian Ismajli, Iván Balliu – Nedim Bajrami, Klaus Gjasula, Kristjan Asllani – Arbër Hoxha, Jasir Asani, Armando Broja.
Italy
Italy qualified for their 11th European Championship only in the last round of the qualifying campaign. They finished ahead of Ukraine only on tiebreakers. The national side has constantly participated in the European Championships since 1996. In this period, they have been runner-ups on two occasions. Italy finally won the title for the second time in 2021 (the first title was won in 1968). In their two friendly games played prior to Euro 2024 Italy didn’t concede a goal: Turkey (0:0) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1:0).
The Italian top scorer Ciro Immobile (17 goals) will miss Euro 2024. Manuel Locatelli will miss the tournament too. They were not included in the squad following the decision taken by Luciano Spalletti, who became the head coach during the qualifying campaign.
- At least 3 goals have been scored in 4 out of the last 5 UEFA Euro qualification games Italy have played.
- Both teams have scored in 6 out of the last 8 official games Italy have played.
- Italy have scored the first goal in 6 out of their 7 official games.
Albania
Sylvinho became the head coach of the national side prior to the start of the Euro 2024 qualification tournament. Albania managed to qualify for the final stage with only 4 goals conceded in their 8 games (only France and Portugal performed better). This is going to be the second Euro for Albania. The first time they participated in this tournament was in 2016. Albania failed to reach the knockout stage back then. The national side has won the following opponents in the friendly games played in June: Liechtenstein (3:0) and Azerbaijan (3:1).
One of the top scorers of the Albanian side Sokol Cikalleshi retired in May. He scored 13 goals, playing for his national team.
- A maximum of 2 goals have been scored in 7 out of the last 9 official games Albania have played. The same result was seen in all three games Albania played in the Euro 2016 group stage.
- Albania have scored in 6 out of their last 7 Euro 2024 qualification games.
- The opponents of the Albanian side have never had an over 1-goal lead in the last 13 official games Albania have played.
Italy vs Albania Prediction
Albania are considered the main outsiders of this group. It is expected that Italy, Spain and Croatis will do their best to easily beat this side. It can help if tiebreakers will be involved to determine teams to advance to the knockout phase.
Albania had quite average opponents in their qualifying campaign. They have played against some top teams on 4 occasions in the last 6 years. Albania faced England (both games lost 0:5 and 0:2) and France (0:2 and 1:4).
Italy are supposed to win the game with at least a 2-goal lead. This is how Italy started their two previous European Championships. They beat Turkey (3:0) in 2021 and Belgium (2:0) in 2016.
Our prediction is Italy -1 at 1,60.
