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Spain vs Italy – Under 21’s Match Preview

By the time this match kicks off the two nations will already know who will be waiting for them in the Friday’s final of the UEFA Under 21 European Championships, will it be England or Germany but more importantly who will progress from this mouth watering clash between Spain and Italy.

Spain are the tournament favourites and rightly so after coming through the group stages with a 100% record thanks to three straight Group B wins. On their way to the tonight’s fixture they have made easy work of Macedonia in the opener, breezed past Portugal and then just edged past Serbia in the final group game thanks to Denis Suarez’s winner.

As for Luigi Di Biagio’s Italy they progressed thanks to a win over Germany on Saturday. They went into that final group game knowing that it was quite simply win or bust, thankfully for them though they delivered and thanks to Federico Bernardeschi first half strike they have booked their place in the Semi’s as Group C winners.

They may not have had as good a goal difference as Germany but due to the fact that teams level on points are separated on a head to head basis as the first tie-breaker it meant that Luigi Di Biagio’s young Italian side could leapfrog their German counterparts with a win.

Italy are going to have a busy time keeping out the likes of Marco Asensio who is currently tied for the tournaments Golden Boot. The Real Madrid forward who has the feat of scoring the club’s first and last goal in Europe this season has 3 goals to his name in this competition.

Not only that by there is also the likes of Atletico’s Saul Niguez and Athletic’s Inaki Williams who can also provide a goal threat, so it could be a long evening for the Italians. In addition to their attacking prowess they have only conceded once so far and that was from an absolute missile from Bruma which will without doubt win the goal of the tournament.

I carried out a twitter poll (please feel free to follow me) as to who was going to win this one and the outcome looks quite a clear one

A 2:1 ratio of my followers have gone for Spain in this instance, so let’s say that a scoreline of 2-1 could be the expectation here. I think that is a fair enough estimate, we’ll know just have to wait and see if the voters are correct. One is for sure, it is certainly further apart than on the voting of the England vs Germany Semi Final

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