UEFA Euro 2024 will take place next summer and the road to qualifying for that tournament continues this week with the latest international break. As clubs across the continent hit the pause button on their domestic leagues, plenty of countries will be hoping to edge closer to the finals. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what should be a fun encounter between Italy and Malta.
Italy Form GuideThey may be the reigning European champions, but the Italian national team have to focus on working hard to repair their image. They failed to qualify for the World Cup and as such, they need to remind fans that they are still an elite team within the continent. It’s not going to happen overnight, but gradually picking up points on the road to qualification will certainly help improve morale.
Italy had to deal with some adversity as they slipped to a 2-1 loss against England back in March. They did, however, bounce back by beating Malta, before losing to Spain in their Nations League semi-final. From there, they beat Netherlands in the 3rd/4th playoff, drew with North Macedonia and just about edged past Ukraine 2-1.
Malta Form GuideThey are one of the smallest countries in the world by area, they’ve never qualified for a major competition, and they are widely recognised as the whipping boys whenever they are in a qualifying group. That tends to be the mission statement and status quo for Malta and while that may seem sad, the last twelve months have seen them make some genuinely encouraging progress.
On the friendly front, Malta have done well to beat Luxembourg and Gibraltar in recent months. However, in qualifying, they can’t avoid defeat - although they’ve certainly been competitive in their defeats to Italy, England, Ukraine and North Macedonia.
Match PredictionMalta are bound to sit deep in an attempt to keep the Italians quiet, but there’s only so long that plan will work until the gulf in quality starts to become more evident. It’s going to be an interesting first 15-20 minutes, but the end result of this one will be an Italy win.
