Portugal V Italy Predictions & Betting Odds

Portugal v Italy Betting Tips – UEFA Nations League, 10th September 7.45pm

You get the feeling that the Nations League is going to be quite important for Italy as they try to find their footing with something of an inexperienced squad. New boss Roberto Mancini will be looking for a positive start as they hit the road and visit Portugal. The reigning European Champions don’t have Cristiano Ronaldo at his own request. Read our predictions for Portugal v Italy.

Portugal News and Form

Reigning European champions Portugal make their entrance into the Nations League on the weekend and will want a strong performance on home soil. In their 2018 World Cup qualification group they won nine of their ten games (L1) and then made a run to the round of sixteen at Russia 2018 where they were stopped by Uruguay. They will be without their superstar Cristiano Ronaldo who asked not to be picked for this squad, perhaps dialling back international duties a bit as well as taking his time to settle into life in Italy with Juventus after his summer move.

So their big talisman isn’t part of all this and that leaves pressure on Andre Silva to come up with the goals as they really don’t have anyone else. Silva is the only man in their current squad to have made it to double figures for the nation. We don’t see this being a high-scoring game and are looking under 2.5 goals for 4/7 odds* (Betting Odds were taken on September 6th, 2018 at 10:30 p.m.). Portugal have suffered just the two defeats since the end of August 2017 and they played out a 1-1 friendly against Croatia in midweek as a warm-up for this one.

Italy News and Form

Italy are rebuilding themselves after failing to have made it to the 2018 World Cup. The new head coach is former Man City boss Roberto Mancini and he got a draw in his first game in charge. Italy played out a 1-1 friendly draw with Poland on Friday to warm up ahead of this Nations League fixture. The Italian midfield looks pretty inexperienced and it was Chelsea’s Jorginho who made a mistake for Poland’s goal but who then made amends by getting Italy’s equaliser from the penalty spot. The Azzurri did boss possession. But overall there wasn’t a great step forward from how they performed during World cup 2018 qualification.

Mancini had brought Mario Balotelli in from the international cold by giving him his first action since 2014. But Italy really needs to find a high-quality striker who will consistently perform at the top level for them. They are missing that at the moment and it has been showing in their output. Italy have scored more than one goal in just one of their last eleven fixtures. During that sequence of games they have only managed to take the two wins as well (D5 L4) so they are struggling. In the Paddy Power correct score market a Portugal 1-0 option is an appealing 5/1 price* (Betting Odds were taken on September 6th, 2018 at 10:30 p.m.).

Portugal v Italy Head to Head

Italy are up in the recent head to head over Portugal. The Azzurri are W4 L1 in their last five fixtures against the Iberians and so do have that advantage. Their most recent meeting, however, was won 1-0 by Portugal and that was back in the summer of 2015. The last meeting between then in Portugal ended in a 2-1 away win for the Italians.

Portugal v Italy Betting Odds*

Portugal 6/5
Draw 2/1
Italy 2/1
* (Betting Odds were taken from Paddy Power on September 7th, 2018 at 5:39 p.m.)
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