Turkey performed well at the last European Championship and earned promotion to the top tier of the Nations League. However, they collapsed at the World Cup in the summer: after just two rounds, defeats to Australia and Paraguay saw them eliminated early. Still, they ended their campaign on a high by "slamming the door" with a victory over the USA! They have now started with a home game against France. After Mbappe's goal, they could only respond with Cakir's sending-off.
Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup: Norway left them with no chance in the group, while in the spring playoffs they comfortably beat Northern Ireland 2-0 before losing to Bosnia on penalties while down to ten men. Gattuso stepped down after that, and in June they defeated Luxembourg and Greece without a full-time coach in charge. Mancini returned to the post only in the autumn. His "second debut" against Belgium ended in disaster: conceding once in each half, his team lost 0-2 at home!
Montella's men scored an average of 1.5 goals per game and conceded 0.9. The Azzurri, meanwhile, scored 1.9 goals while allowing 1.2 on average.
Previous matches: Turkey vs Italy
The teams have met eleven times in total, with Italy winning eight of those encounters and three ending in draws.
Both teams need nothing less than a victory. Our pick is for the match to produce "over 2.5 total goals" (odds – 1.84).
Turkey vs Italy: key statistics and trends
Turkey have lost three of their last four matches
30% of Turkey's matches finish with both teams scoring, and the average total goals per match is 2.4
Italy have won three of their last five matches
40% of Italy's matches finish with both teams scoring, and the average total goals per match is 3.1
Turkey vs Italy: possible starting lineups
Turkey play in a 1-4-2-3-1 formation (possible lineup): Bayindir – Celik, Demiral, Bardakci, Aydin – Ozcan, Yuksek – Kadioglu, Guler, Uzun – Yilmaz. Cakir was sent off in the previous match
Italy play in a 1-4-3-2-1 formation (possible lineup): Donnarumma – Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Coppola, Calafiori – Barella, Romano, Tonali – Cambiaghi, Esposito – Kean