England vs Italy Prediction - Who Will Win This Clash Of Giants?

Next Saturday, England will measure forces with Italy at Arena Amazônia in Manaus for the most important match of the day and of Group D.

England’s recent displays, first against Ecuador and a few days later against Honduras, were fairly disappointing. The Three Lions experienced some difficulties in dealing with Honduras' physical game and although they had the best chances throughout the match, England looked a bit lost and out of ideas and pace during the entire game. The match against Ecuador, which took place a few days earlier, showed a different England than the one that faced Honduras last weekend, but still they failed to win.

England’s dominance during the UEFA qualification round was blatantly evident and was only threatened by Ukraine after Mikhaylo Fomenko took the helm of the team towards the end of 2012. The English team won six of their ten group matches and conceded four draws along the way. Despite the severe criticism by certain areas of the media, Roy Hodgson proved that he knows what he is doing and even his tactical variations have not weakened the team’s defensive line, since they only conceded four goals throughout the qualification stage.

For the match against Italy, it is likely that Roy Hodgson will have all his players at his disposal, since there aren’t any names on the medical chart at this point.

As for Italy, the match against England will present a good opportunity to erase the almost embarrassing home draw against Luxembourg a week ago from their supporters minds. The Azzurri failed to overcome a frail Luxembourg side in front of 28000 supporters at Perugia and certainly left people wondering how bad can the moment they are going through be if they can’t even defeat one of the weakest teams of the Old Continent.

Italy are currently on a seven-match run without a single win and after an almost flawless campaign during the qualification round, the Italians have left everyone stranded with these underachieving performances.

For the match against England, Cesare Prandelli will have all his men at his disposal. The Italian head coach will certainly present his possession-based 5-3-2 style variation with Pirlo in front of the defensive wall acting as a sort of libero/playmaker to help build up his team’s game from behind.

It is not easy to name a favourite team for next Saturday’s match due to both sides' immense quality. Although and judging from their recent performances, England might enjoy a slight advantage due to Italy’s late poor streak.

England

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DDWWL

Italy

Stats: W-0 L-1 D-4

Recent Form - DDLDD

Possible Line-ups

England (4-2-3-1) - Hart - Johnson - Jagielka - Cahill - Baines - Gerrard - Henderson - Lallana - Sturridge - Rooney - Welbeck

Italy (5-3-2) -  Buffon - Abate - Barzagli - Bonucci - Criscito - Pirlo - T. Motta - De Rossi - Marchisio - Candreva - Balotelli

Prediction: England 1 Italy 1