Munich: The world will brace up for yet another mouth-watering clash as continental heavyweights Italy and Belgium lock horns on Friday in the much-awaited Euro 2020 quarterfinals at the Allianz Arena. The second encounter of the day will see Spain taking on a high-flying Switzerland with an aim to book a semifinal spot.
Roberto Mancini’s Italy took the world by surprise as they returned to the European stage with an unbeaten streak and continued their momentum maintaining a perfect record so far in Euro 2020. On the other hand, World No. 1 Belgium is a team everyone is a fan of.
With Marco Verrati recovered and delivering two fine performances, it is pretty sure that Mancini would not sit him out. While Gianluigi Donnarumma is expected to start under the bar, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci along with Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Leonardo Spinazzola will form the ever appreciated Italian defense. The frontline will feature Ciro Immobile, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Chiesa.
Although the injuries are not serious, magical Belgian duo Eden Hazard and Kevin De Brunye might not start but will definitely come in later. Even with Simon Mignolet pulling away, the Belgian camp will have Thibaut Courtois keeping the posts. Dries Mertens, Romelu Lukaku and Leonardo Trossard start in the front with pre-quarterfinal hero Thorgan Hazard returning to the midfield with Alex Witsel.
Toby Alderweireld, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen and Thomas Meunier could potentially line up in the back in an endeavor to stop the Italian attack.
Meanwhile, having reached their first Euro quarterfinal in history disposing of World No.2 France in the process, Switzerland will be taking on heavily-fancied side Spain on Friday in St. Petersburg.
Luis Enrique’s side created a new record scoring five goals each in their last two matches eliminating the 2018 World Cup runners-up Croatia in the process as they strive to revive back their European reputation. However, the Swiss will be missing the services of Granit Xhaka who picked up his second yellow card against France and Denis Zakaria might take his place.
Haris Seferovic will be joined by Breel Embolo while Xherdan Shaqiri will provide the pivot.
Enrique will deploy an almost unchanged XI with Alvaro Morata, Ferran Torres and Pablo Sarabia in the final third. Cesar Azpilicueta, Eric Garcia, Aymeric Laporte and Jordi Alba will be helping ‘keeper Unai Simon while Pedri, Sergio Busquets and Koke boss the midfield.
