Heavyweight nations Italy and the Netherlands will be looking to put goalless draws behind them when they meet in the UEFA Nations League in Bergamo on Wednesday evening.
Italy were held by Poland and the Netherlands played out a stalemate with Bosnia-Herzegovina, leaving Group A1 wide open at the midway stage.
Match preview
Sunday's bore draw with Bosnia means that Frank de Boer is still awaiting his first victory since succeeding Ronald Koeman as Netherlands head coach.
De Boer kicked off his reign with a disappointing 1-0 friendly defeat to Mexico last week, and the display in Zenica four days later was not much better.
The Oranje are now winless in three games without scoring, with Luuk de Jong coming closest to changing that against Bosnia by forcing Ibrahim Sehic into a fine save.
The Netherlands did beat Poland 1-0 in their opening Group A1 game in September, however, giving them four points from their opening three matches.
That is one point fewer than Italy, who top the standings despite a stalemate of their own on Sunday.
© Reuters
Federico Chiesa had Italy's best chance of the match in Gdansk, firing wide from close range in a game of few clear-cut opportunities at either end.
The Azzurri's blunt attacking display was in stark contrast to four days prior when putting six unanswered goals past minnows Moldova in a friendly match.
Roberto Mancini's side have now drawn two and won one of their three Group A1 matches, while overall their unbeaten run spans spans 18 matches since September 2018.
Italy have the better overall record in previous meetings with the Netherlands, too, winning nine and losing three of their past 22 encounters.
Indeed, the Dutch are without a victory in six meetings with Italy since a 3-0 win in their opening fixture at Euro 2008.
Italy Nations League form: DWD
Italy form (all competitions): WWDWWD
Netherlands Nations League form: WLD
Netherlands form (all competitions): DWWLLD
Team News
© Reuters
Memphis Depay missed the Bosnia draw through suspension but is back in contention here and will likely lead the line in place of De Jong.
Georginio Wijnaldum was the only midfield player to retain his place in the side between the loss to Mexico and draw with Bosnia, but it is unlikely that he will be given a rest.
After being brought on as a second-half sub in Zenica, Steven Berghuis will be pushing for inclusion out wide on Wednesday.
As for Italy, Mancini made seven changes last time out, with Andrea Belotti, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Chiesa coming into the side.
Ciro Immobile was surprisingly kept on the bench, perhaps with one eye on this match with the Netherlands, while defender Giorgio Chiellini is another who is pushing for a recall.
Stephan El Shaarawy is battling with Pellegrini and Chiesa for a starting spot out wide, assuming Mancini sticks with his favoured 4-3-3 setup.
Italy possible starting lineup:
Donnarumma; Florenzi, Bonucci, Chiellini, Biraghi; Verratti, Jorginho, Barella; Chiesa, Immobile, El Shaarawy
Netherlands possible starting lineup:
Cillessen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Blind; De Roon, De Jong, Wijnaldum; Berghuis, Depay, Promes
We say: Italy 2-1 Netherlands
De Boer told his players to "look at themselves in the mirror" following Sunday's stalemate with Bosnia, which saw his side go a third game without scoring.
Italy also fired a blank last time out but have otherwise netted freely of late and enter this game unbeaten in 18 - a run which we can see them extending with a big win in midweek.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:data
Daniel Lewis
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Italy win with a probability of 45.16%. A win for Netherlands had a probability of 31.02% and a draw had a probability of 23.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Italy win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.19%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.09%) and 2-0 (6.79%). The likeliest Netherlands win was 1-2 (7.42%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.95%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 11% likelihood.
Portugal
Croatia
Scotland
Poland
France
Italy
Belgium
Israel
Germany
Netherlands
Hungary
Bosnia H'vina
Spain
Denmark
Serbia
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Ukraine
Georgia
Albania
England
Greece
Rep. Ireland
Finland
Norway
Austria
Slovenia
Kazakhstan
Wales
Turkey
Iceland
Montenegro
Sweden
Slovakia
Estonia
Azerbaijan
Romania
Kosovo
Cyprus
Lithuania
N. Ireland
Bulgaria
Belarus
Luxembourg
N. Macedonia
Armenia
Faroe Islands
Latvia
San Marino
Gibraltar
Liechtenstein
Moldova
Malta
Andorra
