UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying: Greece vs Italy preview

We have a major clash in UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying Group J on Saturday evening at Spiros Louis Stadium in Athens, where home side Greece host group leaders and favourites Italy. The two nations have last met in a friendly match in 2008, which ended 1-1. The last competitive matches between these two sides were in the qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup, and back then Italy won 2-0 in Greece before recording a 1-1 draw at home. Greece have won just one match against Italy, back in 1972. 

Greece had a good start to the qualifying campaign for Euro 2020, they grabbed a 2-0 victory in Liecthenstein and then fought back from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-2 draw in Bosnia & Herzegovina, a great away result for the Greeks. That good start was more than welcome for Greece considering that they had a disappointing campaign in the UEFA Nations League last year, they finished third in their group behind Finland and Hungary with three wins out of six matches. Defender Michalis Bakakis, midfielder Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and forward Kostas Mitroglu were not called up for this match due to injuries. 

Italy are determined to make their fans forget the failed qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup, but until now they have been unable to do that. The UEFA Nations League campaign was decent but not more than that, they finished second behind Portugal in their group and failed to qualify for the final four. The Euro 2020 qualifying campaign started with back-to-back wins, but the Italians faced weaker sides at home: 2-0 against Finland and 6-0 against Liechtenstein. Defender Cristiano Piccini and forward Matteo Politano are injured and won't play in this match. 

Probable line-ups: 

Greece: Vlachodimos - Sokratis, Manolas, Siovas - Stafylidis, Samaris, Bouchalakis, Koutris - Zeca, Fortounis, Donis

Italy: Sirigu - De Sciglio, Bonucci, Chiellini, Biraghi - Verratti, Jorginho, Pellegrini - Kean, Immobile, Bernardeschi

My prediction: 

I expect a cagey match between these two sides, both had the results they wanted so far and I think both will be happy with a 0-0 draw. 

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: 

Greece win - 5.25

Draw - 3.20

Italy win - 1.90