Andrew Wilsher
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The Last 16 stage of Euro 2020 continues with red-hot Italy facing an Austrian team that is making its first ever appearance in the knockout stage of a European championship.
Italy has been borderline unstoppable lately and that impressive form has seen the Azzurri become second favorites to win the entire tournament. Austria looked fairly lackluster in the group stage but got the job done against Ukraine and will need to stay resilient here.
To add more spice to this matchup, we’ve come up with a same game parlay for Italy vs. Austria.
Italy ML (-220)
Under 0.5 first-half goals (+172)
Ciro Immobile to score anytime (+130)
Parlay odds: +1093
This same game parlay pays out at nearly 11/1 with FanDuel Sportsbook! Let’s take a look at our reasoning for each selection:
Make sure you check out our picks and best bets for each of the Euro 2020 Last 16 matchups
Italy to beat Austria (-220)
You don’t need to overthink this one. Italy won all three of its group games in pretty comfortable fashion, beating Turkey, Switzerland and Wales. Impressively, they did not concede a single goal in any of those games. In fact, they haven’t conceded in more than 1,000 minutes of soccer.
Austria hasn’t looked the biggest attacking threat, and there is no reason to think that they will be the ones to put a dramatic end to Italy’s enormous momentum.
Italy head coach Roberto Mancini was able to rest some of his key players in their final group game against Wales, and his side should be raring to go in an effort to make a statement to the other remaining nations.
Be sure to check out our full game preview for Italy vs. Austria
Under 0.5 first-half goals (+172)
While Italy should advance pretty easily, that isn’t to say that the first half won’t be a little cagey. As already mentioned, the Azzurri have not conceded in 1,000 minutes of soccer, so there’s little to worry about Austria getting on the scoresheet early.
As for Italy, I’m not expecting any major urgency to find the net in the first half. They failed to do so in their tournament opener against Turkey, and left it until the 39th minute to score their first against Wales. But what makes this play attractive is based on the way I’m expecting Austria to play.
Das Team will know all too well about Italy’s stern defense, and their game plan will likely be to shore up their own back line and turn this into a low-scoring game. They should be able to keep things tight in the first half, but I would expect Italy to eventually find a way through as time goes on and fatigue kicks in.
Don’t forget to read our Euro 2020 Saturday parlay, which pays at +586 odds!
IMMOBILE!
ITALY ARE FLYING 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/Sqmr5QlZpe
— ESPN (@espn) June 16, 2021
Ciro Immobile to score at any time (+130)
And the man most likely to be on the end of that Italy goal is Ciro Immobile. The 31-year-old found the net in each of Italy’s first two group games before being given the night off against Wales. He has been a serious sharpshooter for Lazio over the past five years, scoring 123 goals in 177 matches, and is finally translating that form over to the international side.
The way Italy attack indicates that Immobile will get chances, and if Austria wind up playing a high line at any point in the game as they did against the Netherlands, Immobile should be in a perfect position to punish them.
Find out our same game parlay picks for Wales vs. Denmark (+650 odds!)
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