Can Italy Win Euro 2024?

Italy is a four-time FIFA World Cup Champion (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) and two times Runners-Up (1970, 1994). They have won the UEFA European Championship twice (1968, 2020), which makes them one of the most successful and followed football teams. However, Italy has been erratic in the last few years. They failed to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and exited from the group stage in both 2010 and 2014.

The team’s performance has been poor on the world stage since Italy won the 2006 tournament at Germany. In between, of course, Italy won the 2020 Euro Cup, which makes them the defending champions this time. Recently, they have drawn with North Macedonia and Ukraine during the qualifying round. But Italy is still Italy, one of the major teams in any tournament and a country with a rich and successful football heritage.

So, what are their chances in Euro 2024? Will they be able to defend their title or go deep into the tournament? Let us examine –

The Group Stage

Italy is in Group B with Spain, Croatia, and Albania, which makes it one of the most difficult groups this year. The country may find it tricky early in the tournament. Many are saying that this is the “group of death”. However, Italy was expected to be in a difficult group because they had a poor #18 rank in the qualifying stage, while Portugal was ranked #1.

Spain is looking good, having won the 2023 UEFA Nations League after defeating Croatia. They have many exciting players like Ansu Fati, Ferran Torres, Gavi, Dani Olmo, and Lamine Yamal. Croatia will also be a strong competitor as they came third in the 2022 World Cup, knocking out Brazil in the way. Albania won’t be a pushover as well. The country has a few strong defenders who will fight hard till the last minute.

Italy’s games at Euro 2024 –

1. vs. Albania – June 15th, 2024, BVB Stadion Dortmund, Dortmund
2. vs. Spain – June 20th, 2024, Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen
3. vs. Croatia – June 24th, 2024, Leipzig Stadium, Leipzig

With such a strong group, there is a real chance that Italy may fail to advance to the next stage as two countries from the group will make it to the knock-out stage. To have a chance, Italy must beat Albania and win one more game and then hope for the best. Their best chance is to win against Croatia as Luka Modric is already 38 years of age. Croatia depends too much on Luka.

Football fans can check the predictions, and odds, and predict the result of games on this page, which aggregates predictions and odds from many bookies and presents them in an easy-to-access format. You can use your computer or mobile phone to check the bookie odds and match predictions, which will give you a better idea of what the market is thinking about Italy’s chances in this tournament.

A Second Chance for Italy?

Euro 2024 has six groups with the top two teams from each group making it to the next round. However, the tournament format allows four of the best third-placed teams to make it to the Round of 16. So, there is a good chance that Italy may progress beyond the group stage even by coming third. But for this, they will need a minimum of 3 points in the group. To be on the safe side, Italy should aim for 4 points or more, which will give them a high chance of making it to the next round directly.

In Euro 2020, Ukraine with 3 points was the fourth of the four best third-placed teams and made it to the next round, where they defeated Sweden and ended up losing to England 0-4 in the Quarter Finals.

It is a knock-out from the Round of 16, so anything can happen.

The Round of 16

Group B winner will play the third-placed team of Group A/D/E/F, which is likely to be Hungary, Poland, Romania/Slovakia, or the Czech Republic. Italy can potentially beat them all and make it to the Quarter-Finals.

If Italy finished second in Group B, then they will play against the second-ranked team from Group A, which is likely to be Switzerland. Italy should be the favorite to win against Switzerland too. So, it seems like, Italy should make it to the Round of 16 at least.

Quarter-Final and Beyond

There are no easy games at this stage of the tournament. Eight of the best European teams or those in the best form are likely to compete here. Anything can happen on a good or bad day.

Italy is flawed, especially when it comes to scoring goals. Giacomo Raspadori, Gianluca Scamacca, Mateo Retegui, and Ciro Immobile have not been scoring consistently. There are too many highs and lows. But do not rule out Italy as they can very well go deep into the tournament even if they don’t qualify automatically to the Round of 16. Italy may even win Euro 2024 with a little bit of luck.

Remember, the Azzurri were not the favorite to win Euro 2020. But the boys of Roberto Mancini still managed to win the tournament in a remarkable campaign, where they defeated Wales, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Spain, and England. Italy played 7 games, winning them all and surprising many.

The fans of Italian football were expecting a Renaissance after Italy won Euro 2020 beating England at Wembley on penalty. But that did not happen as Italy failed to qualify for World Cup 2022 in Qatar. This was the second time in a row, which disappointed the fans even more, especially after winning Euro 2020.

Former goalkeeper and Italy’s most capped player Gianluigi Buffon is hopeful that the country will do well this time as well, despite being in a tough group. He feels there are only 3-4 teams like France, England, Spain, and Belgium that seems stronger on paper. Buffon says that Italy must be confident on the pitch when playing the Euro.

Categorised in: All Blogs

This post was written by Powered by thefootballforum.net