Greece vs Italy 09/06/19

9 June 2019

Greece host Italy to the Olympic Stadium of Athens “Spiros Louis” for their game of matchday 3 in Group J of EURO 2020 qualifiers.

Although the hosts struggled to impress during their UEFA Nations League campaign (W3, L3), finishing third in Group C/2, they’ve started the European Cup qualifiers off on the right foot, securing four points in the opening two matches. It will be Greece’s first home games in the ECQ, with all five of their previous home outings ending with the identical 1-0 scoreline (W3, L2). Ethniki’s main strength is their stubborn defense that has kept six clean sheets in the last ten home matches, restricting their opponents to one goal per match on three occasions in the process. However, Angelos Anastasiadis’ men have been dealing with massive problems in the final third over the past 20 months, having scored one goal or less in ten of their last 11 home games.

Meanwhile, the visitors currently top Group J after securing back-to-back wins at the beginning of their ECQ campaign, with both of those triumphs saw them beat their rivals to nil. Moreover, Gli Azzurri travel on a run of five consecutive games in which they’ve managed to keep a clean sheet. Although Italy’s dreadful away form (D1, L4) has been brought to a halt with a narrow 1-0 victory over Poland, Roberto Mancini’s players have struggled to score over 1.5 match goals on their last eight road trips. Four of those games have ended with the same 1-0 scoreline (W2, L2), with two of the remaining four producing over 2.5 goals.