Italy vs Uruguay Prediction - Who Will Win The Battle For A Place At The Next Stage Of The Competition?

Next Tuesday, the former World Champions Italy will measure forces with Uruguay at Estádio das Dunas in Natal, on a match that will decide which team from Group D will join Costa Rica at the next stage of the tournament.

After defeating England on a very entertaining match, Italy failed to impress last Friday against Costa Rica. The Italians, who looked a fairly organized team on the match against England, seemed to have lost their north during the clash with Costa Rica. After failing to materialize some good goal chances by Mario Balotelli, Italy conceded a goal on the dying moments of the first half, when they allowed Bryan Ruiz to place a powerful header on the far post giving no chances to Gigi Buffon.

When everyone was expecting a strong reaction from Italy after the break, Cesare Prandelli’s boys looked lost of ideas and never managed to find a way to really disturb the Costa Rican goalie Keylor Navas. The Azzurri had more ball possession and completed more passes throughout the match, but such possession and apparent control of the match, besides being ineffective, was somewhat allowed by their opponents.

For the match against Uruguay, Cesare Prandelli will probably make some changes in his team after such a bland performance. Players such as Bonucci, Verratti and Insigne might gain a place at the team’s starting line-up, replacing Thiago Motta, Candreva and Darmina.

As for Uruguay, the match against Italy will be a good opportunity for them to continue what they started against England last Thursday. After a disappointing performance and subsequent defeat against what appeared to be a “frail” Costa Rican side, Uruguay rallied their troops and relied on an highly inspired Luis Suárez once again to defeat England. The absence of the Liverpool’s versatile forward proved to be a major handicap on the team’s global strategy for the match against Costa Rica. On last Thursday’s match, Óscar Tabárez prompted some changes in his team and he was succeessful. The South American manager opted for a more conservative approach than he usually does and tried to exploit the English defensive line’s vulnerabilities through long balls to their experienced and highly dangerous strikers Suárez and Cavani.

It is very likely that Tabárez will opt for a similar approach against Italy, due to the complexity of the match.

Despite the very poor Italian performance against Costa Rica, they have to be considered favourites for the next Tuesday’s match; nevertheless, it is fair to say that if Uruguay manage to replicate their last skeptical performance, they might be gettting something from the match.

Italy

Stats: W-1 L-2 D-2

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Uruguay

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

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Possible Line-ups

Italy (5-3-2) -  Buffon - Abate - Barzagli - Bonucci - Criscito - Pirlo - Verratti - De Rossi - Marchisio - Insigne- Balotelli

Uruguay (4-4-2) - Muslera - Maxi Pereira - Lugano - Godín - Cáceres - Arévalo - Gargano - C. Rodríguez - Lodero - Forlán - Cavani

Prediction: Italy 2 Uruguay 1