The European champions Italy is set to host the Copa America champions Argentina this Wednesday at Wembley Stadium in an international Friendlies fixture. Kickoffs at 10:45 EAT.
Italy became the European champions for the second time in their history, but they have incredibly now missed out on the finals of the last two World Cups, failing to qualify in 2018 before missing out on the 2022 competition by losing to North Macedonia in the semi-finals of the playoffs back in March. Italy have lost each of their last three matches against Argentina, which have all been friendlies, with their last competitive meeting coming at the 1990 World Cup, when Argentina won 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the semi-finals of the competition.
Italy gets into this fixture in high spirits coming off 2-3 friendlies success over Turkey in their most recent outing. In that match, Turkey had 53% possession, 15 shots with four of them on target and goals scored by Brian Cristante 35’ Giacomo Raspadori 39’ and 69. Turkey got 15 shots with seven of them on target and goals by Cengiz Under 4’ and Serdan Dursun 83’.
On the other side, Argentina won the Copa America for the first time since 1993 last summer, beating Brazil 1-0 in the final courtesy of a first-half effort from Angel Di Maria. Argentina were runners-up at the 2014 World Cup but went out in the round of 16 in 2018, and it will be fascinating to see how they perform in this year’s competition, with the South American nation bidding to lift the trophy for the third time.
Albiceleste held each other to 1-1 WC Qualifiers stalemate with Ecuador in their recent encounter. In that match, Argentina had 54% possession, six shots with two of them on target and a goal scored by Julian Alvarez 24’. Ecuador got 10 shots with three of them on target and a goal by Enner Valencia 90+3’.
Italy vs Argentina head to head
Wednesday’s fixture will be the third head to head meeting between these two sides, Argentina won in both the preceding meeting while Italy is yet to win.
- Argentina 2-0 Italy 2018/03/23
- Italy 1-2 Argentina 2013/08/14
Home
- Turkey 2-3 Italy
- Italy 0-1 North Macedonia
- Northern Ireland 0-0 Italy
- Italy 1-1 Switzerland
- Italy 2-1 Belgium
Away
- Ecuador 1-1 Argentina
- Argentina 3-0 Venezuela
- Argentina 1-0 Colombia
- Chile 1-2 Argentina
- Argentina 0-0 Brazil
Italy team news
Domenico Berardi and Andrea Pinamonti are both out through injury, while Federico Chiesa, Ciro Immobile, Gaetano Castrovilli and Rafael Toloi are also on the sidelines.
Argentina team news
The away side has not confirmed any injury or suspension concerns ahead of this fixture.
Prediction and odds
The Italians might be European champions, but it needs to be considered that they have won a total of just three games since their triumph against England the While Argentina is on a three-year unbeaten run.
- Argentina Win
- Draw
- Goals under 2.5
