Italy and France are about to start their preparations for the World Cup qualifiers, facing each other in a friendly game at Stadio Comunale San Nicola in Bari.
For both team this is going to be a first test since their participation at the Euro 2016 in France. Les Blues reached the final of the competition, losing to Portugal in the extra time, while Italy were eliminated by Germany after penalties in the quarter-finals.
This is an interesting game to see because it would be an unofficial debut for Italy’s new manager Giampiero Ventura. He replaced Antonio Conte after the European championship and now he will have the chance to impress in his first game as a manager of the Azzurri, facing one of the strongest sides in the world. Giampero Ventura was coaching Torino in the last five years, so now it would be curious to see his work on an international level as well.
He already brought some fresh blood to Italy’s squad, calling for this game young players like Milan’s 17-years old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarruma and Torino’s 22-years old striker Andrea Belotti.
Didier Deschamps kept his position as a France manager, despite his failure to win the Euro 2016 this summer. The World Cup winner already refreshed his squad for this friendly, calling Atletico Madrid’s new signing Kevin Gameiro and the goalscoring sensation Ousmane Dembele, who signed with Borussia Dortmund after the end of the last season.
Let’s take a look at the head to head record between Italy and France. We could see that the Azzurri are performing much better in this rivalry, having won 18 times compared to just 8 wins for France. The draws between Italy and France are exactly 10. For the last time Italy and France met in 2012, when France won with 2-1.
Prediction: We should expect a very intriguing game between two extremely good sides, without the pressure of it being an official match. As the two sides should enter the pitch relaxed and calm, we could expect to see some goals as well. Both teams to score is a good strategy to use in this game. You could also try the over 2.5 goals as well.
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