Italy-Northern Macedonia is a match valid for the ninth day of Euro 2024 qualifying Group C and is played Friday at 8:45 p.m.: predictions.
A month ago, a willing and well-positioned Italy was not enough to pull off the feat at Wembley. After a good first half, in which Luciano Spalletti’s Azzurri had managed to hold their own against England – Kane replied to Scamacca – values came out in the second half, with the English asserting their greater technical content, dragged by a phenomenal Bellingham (assist to Rashford) and a relentless Kane under goal, good at taking advantage of mistakes by the Italian defense.
The defeat (3-1) suffered in the London stadium had been taken into account: the playoff specter is still around the corner and Italy must compulsorily beat the North Macedonia bogeyman at the Olimpico to then have two results out of three at its disposal in the challenge with Ukraine, which currently has three points more than the Azzurri (who, however, have played one match less). Recall that, in the worst case scenario, Italy would already have a playoff pass in their pocket, guaranteed thanks to their placement in the last Nations League. Spalletti’s goal, however, is to win both of the two remaining matches, so as to avoid complicating life as it did in the last World Cup qualifiers. North Macedonia knows something about this, if we consider that a year and a half ago it was precisely the Balkans who ousted us from the play-offs for Qatar 2022 in the famous Palermo match, decided by a Trajkovski goal in full recovery.
Spalletti dusts off Jorginho
Blagoja Milevski’s selection by the way also put a spoke in Italy’s wheels in September, in Spalletti’s first outing on the Azzurri bench (1-1).
(Bardhi , IlVeggente.it (Ansa)
The prediction
The feeling is that this time Spalletti’s Italy will not miss the appointment with the three points, exorcising the Macedonia bogeyman. With the new technical guidance, the Azzurri have grown from the offensive point of view: in their matches they did not see more than two goals only with the North Africans in September. The trend should continue at the Olimpico as well.
The probable lineups of Italy-Northern Macedonia
ITALY (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Darmian, Gatti, Acerbi, Dimarco; Barella, Jorginho, Bonaventura; Berardi, Raspadori, Chiesa.
NORTHERN MACEDONIA (3-4-1-2): Dimitrievski; Manev, Serafimov, Musliu; Ashkovski, Elezi, Atanasov, Alioski; Bardhi; Elmas, Miovski.