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Here we have the first Round of 16 fixture and what an encounter we have in store.
Switzerland were so close to finishing on top of Group A against the hosts until that last ditch German equaliser deep into injury time.
The Italy match was even more tense, they left it until literally the last kick of the game to equalise against Croatia to secure the second place spot in Group B.
The knockout stages in competitions like this are a completely different ball game (pardon the pun) to the group matches, so it would be fair to say that this is where Euro24 starts to get really interesting.
Odds and Predictions
We were expecting Switzerland to do well in this tournament and we haven’t been disappointed, they play entertaining football and always look dangerous.
As for Italy, most pundits will agree that this is not the best ever Italian side in history, but they have the same old swagger and flair and that resolute performance against Croatia must have given them a great deal of confidence moving forward.
The bookies make the Italians favourites for this match at odds of 2.40, Switzerland are priced at 3.20 and the odds for the draw are 3.0.
For us, this match has got ‘draw’ written all over it and at odds of 3.0 we are happy to make this result the first one of our tips
You won’t be surprised that for the correct score, we are going for 1 – 1 at 6.0, not the greatest of odds well worth a punt in our opinion.
For the last one of our predictions, we recommend a small wager on ‘Game decided in Extra Time – Yes’, this bet has a decent chance of coming in if the game ends in a draw after 90 minutes as we predict.
Comparison and Statistics from Past Meetings Between the Teams
Switzerland and Italy have played each other head to head sixty times which is quite amazing and shows the history between the teams.
Italy have won twenty nine of these matches, Switzerland have won seven and the remaining twenty four matches have ended in draws.
The last five H2H matches between the two teams are listed below.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Nov 2021 | italy | 1-1 | switzerland | World Cup Qualifier |
| 05 Sep 2021 | switzerland | 0-0 | italy | World Cup Qualifier |
| 16 Jun 2021 | switzerland | 3-0 | turkey | UEFA European Championship |
| 05 Jun 2010 | switzerland | 1-1 | italy | UEFA European Championship |
| 12 Aug 2009 | switzerland | 0-0 | italy | Friendly Game |
Expected Line Ups
We must mention again how impressed we’ve been with Xherdan Shaqiri for Switzerland, that super goal he scored against Scotland proved that his ability has not diminished with age and he is always a danger.
The Italian side plays with an arrogance that is wonderful to watch and seems to be in their DNA, let’s hope the England side can start playing with a similar level of confidence!
Switzerland (4-3-3): Yann Sommer; Silvan Widmer, Nico Elvedi, Manuel Akanji, Ricardo Rodriguez; Michel Aebischer, Fabian Frei, Djibril Sow; Xherdan Shaqiri, Haris Seferovic, Renato Steffen.
Italy (4-3-3): Gianluigi Donnarumma; Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori, Matteo Darmian; Nicolò Barella, Jorginho, Manuel Locatelli; Giacomo Raspadori, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Federico Dimarco.
How Far Will These Teams Progress in the Tournament?
We expect the game to end in a draw and for Italy to win in extra time, if not penalties.
The reasoning behind our predictions is that Italy showed exactly what they are made of against Croatia, fighting until deep into injury time and a repeat of that kind of resolute performance should be enough to see off the Swiss.
