Euro 2020: Round of 16 – Italy vs Austria

Italy look to continue their Euro 2020 bid for glory as they face Austria in the Round of 16 at Wembley Stadium, London. 

Roberto Mancini’s Italians qualified as Group A winners to set up this encounter whilst Austria defeated Ukraine in their final Group C clash to secure the runners-up qualification spot.

The winner of this clash will face a Quarter Final tie against the winner of Belgium’s tie against Portugal in Munich on Friday 2 July 2021.

 

Team News

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Giorgio Chiellini is a doubt for Italy after missing their win over Wales with a thigh injury suffered against Switzerland.

Alessandro Florenzi (calf) is also unlikely to be declared fit ahead of kick-off as he faces a second match on the sidelines.

Matteo Pessina could be rested because he will miss the Quarter-Final if he was to receive a booking.

Austria could be without Christoph Baumgartner after the midfielder suffered a head injury in Monday’s victory over Ukraine.

Julian Baumgartlinger (fitness), Martin Hinteregger (knock) and Valentino Lazaro (muscle) are all doubts for this match, whilst Daniel Bachmann, David Alaba and Stefan Lainer are all one booking away from suspension.

 

Stat Attack

• Italy are meeting Austria at the Euros for the first-ever time but have won all four previous meetings at a major tournament (W4), which all came at World Cups in 1934, 78, 90 & 98 respectively.
• Austria lost three of those four previous competitive meetings at a major tournament by 1-0 results.
• Manuel Locatelli and Ciro Immobile have scored two goals apiece for Italy this tournament, although Locatelli’s goals came once from right and left foot respectively whereas Immobile netted both of his goals on his right foot.
• David Alaba provided two assists for Austria in the Group Stage.
• No team registered more shots off target in the Group Stage of Euro 2020 than Italy, who put 29 of their 60 shots off target across all three games.

 

Prediction

Having still clinically won with a clean sheet despite fielding a weakened team in their final group match, Italy definitely have to be viewed as serious favourites with several first-team regulars set to return here refreshed.

Austria meanwhile feel tricky to predict because they mentally froze when faced the Netherlands in Group C, yet were excellent when allowed to dominate on the front foot like they did on Monday against Ukraine so their performance could boil down to their mentality come kick-off.

I however do feel that Italy will have too much for Austria no matter what they throw at the Italians and that this should be a routine win.

Prediction: Italy 2-0 Austria

Result: Italy 2-1 (AET) Austria