England Under-19s and Italy-Under-19 will face off in the opening semi-final of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship at the Narodne treningove centrum SFZ in Slovakia on Tuesday evening with kickoff at 18:00 EAT.
Both youth sides have met strong campaigns in the UEFA European U19 Championship with England youths winning all their three Group B games to finish on top of the group with nine points, five points above second placed Israel.
Ian Foster’s side opened with a 2-0 victory over Austria then dispatched Serbia with 1-0 win in the second fixture, before overcoming Israel 1-0 on the final group match. They have now won all their last seven matches across all competitions, while are unbeaten in the last nine.
They will be looking to extend the run on Tuesday as they look to book a place in the final of the competition.
Standing in their way and final is Italy side who also opened the competition positively after claiming a 2-1 win over Romania, before dispatching Slovakia with a narrow 1-0 win in the second Group A tie. However, Carmine Nunziata’s side missed out on the top spot in the group following a thumping 4-1 defeat to France on the final day.
Therefore Italy managed to book a place in the semi-finals as the runners-up in Group A and will enter the Tuesday clash as the underdogs. However, having now just lost two of their last 13 matches across all competitions, the young Italians could fancy their chances of causing an upset on Tuesday.
England U19 vs Italy U19 head to head
Both sides have met in four encounters with both sides claiming one victory and there have been two draws.
- England 1-2 Italy 21/07/16
- England 0-0 Italy 13/10/15
- England 3-0 Italy 14/11/14
- England 0-0 Italy 17/07/08
Home
- Israel 0-1 England
- England 4-0 Serbia
- England 2-0 Austria
- England2-0 Portugal
- England 4-0 Armenia
Away
- France 4-1 Italy
- Slovakia 0-1 Italy
- Italy 2-1 Romania
- Belgium 0-2 Italy
- Italy 4-0 Finland
England U19 team news
England have no fresh injury concerns at their camp.
Italy U19 team news
Italy also will have a fully-fit squad to select from.
Prediction and odds
- England U19 win
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 2.5
