Euro 2012 – Italy v Croatia – Azzurri Can Build On Impressive Start

Kick Off: Thursday 14th June
Live on BBC1 5.00pm

The feeling among the two camps involved in this exciting encounter must have been one of satisfaction after their respective opening ties.

Croatia dispatched of Ireland with the minimum of fuss and would have been pleased to hit the ground running ahead of two extremely tough matches, and will hope they can do enough to exit Group C safely into the Quarter Finals.

Italy, probably more impressively, more than held their own against a Spain side that were widely expected to run riot against an Italian squad supposedly in turmoil following the recent allegations against their national game.

This game is of huge importance to both teams and could even be billed as a Euro play-off in that the victor would almost certainly march on to the next stage of the competition.

With this in mind I fully expect a cagey affair to be played out in Poland on Thursday afternoon. But for a piece of magic from the Spanish midfield trio in their first game, Italy may have held on for a precious clean sheet and therefore the 3 points, and I think, led by the ever impressive Giorgio Chiellini, have the defensive quality to shut out the Croats.

Paddy Power go 4/6 for both teams not to score and I’m more than happy with that price.

In terms of a result I think the Azzurri should have enough to see off a classy Croatia who showed some defensive frailties against the Irish on Matchday 1.

Balotelli and co have great strength-in-depth and the City that Mario’s title-winning team made famous, could see the Blues dancing the Poznan once more!

Italy are available at 13/10 but I prefer to take the 12/5 for an Italian win to nil.

Betting Tips:

Both teams NOT to score- 4/6
Italy to win to nil- 12/5
Both with Paddy Power