EUROPEAN heavyweights France and Italy begin their Nations League campaigns at the Parc des Princes on Friday.
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The Nations League returns, and it returns with a bang as France clash with Italy in Paris.
The pair are in the Nations League A, and they are joined in Group 2 by Belgium and Israel with the top two qualifying for the two-legged quarter-final stage in March.
Les Bleus won the competition in its second year (2021) when beating Spain 2-1 in the final, while Italy have finished third in the last two renewals.
We last saw France in action when exiting Euro 2024 against eventual champions Spain in Munich. Didier Deschamps’ side entered the tournament as joint-favourites but rarely – if ever – got going.
Of course, they weren’t helped by Kylian Mbappe’s broken nose, but even still they only managed to score four goals in six outings. In fact, they became the first team in Euros history to reach the semi-final without any goals scored in open play.
Italy didn’t fare too well either, although little was expected from the Azzurri given Luciano Spalletti’s late appointment.
Spalletti has vowed to “build a new team” after Italy’s disappointment at Euro 2024, and that could take some time to take shape.
Odds are correct at the time of publication and are subject to change.
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We can only work on what we’ve witnessed from these sides over the last calendar year, and that suggests that goals could be in short supply on Friday.
To say that Didier Deschamps’ side are pragmatic would be an understatement. Only ONE of their last seven matches has yielded more than 2.5 goals — with three goalless draws during that run.
It’s a similar story for Italy, who’ve blanked in two of their last three and five of their last six seeing under 2.5 goals.
Michael Olise has been given his first senior call-up by Didier Deschamps, and I think the 22-year-old could make an instant impact.
The former Crystal Palace midfielder, now at Bayern Munich, scored twice and provided five assists during their Olympics campaign. He’s likely to come on late against a tired Italy defence and we’re backing him at 7/1 to score the last (and perhaps only) goal of the game.
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