If the duel between Italy and England was played in another competition, and not in the Nations League, the players and fans of both teams would be waiting for this duel with great impatience. During all these games, we could see that the strongest national teams do not attach much importance to this competition. Although these matches do not have a completely friendly character, they are far from the way we are used to playing from the strongest national teams. I'm pretty sure that the same situation will happen in this match, primarily because of the fear of injury to the main players before the World Cup in Qatar. Of course, I mean England here, because the Italians miss the World Cup for the second time in a row. For Roberto Mancini's team, the League of Nations could represent a consolation, albeit a weak one, but success in this competition was of great importance for restoring self-confidence to Italy. Italy still have a pretty good chance of reaching the semi-finals, but the first step is a win against England tonight. In all the years that I have been following football, Italy has always been known for their defensive style of play and they are a team that loses games very hard at home. Before this somewhat poor form lately, the Italians had a streak of over 20 games without defeat at home. They certainly know how to play for the result and with a lot of caution, and I believe that England will have a very hard time winning here.

England have already bid farewell to any chance of fighting for the Nations League title as the English team's results this season have been disastrous. Gareth Southgate's team scored just one goal in the four rounds played and won just two points thanks to draws with Germany and Italy, while they were defeated twice by Hungary. If the narrow defeat in Budapest could be put down to a bad day, England received a serious slap in the face in front of their fans in june's fourth round as Hungary won 4-0. England will play in Qatar, but the question remains as to what the atmosphere will be like in the national team if they are relegated in the Nations League in the meantime. England has had serious problems with scoring goals lately. They scored only one goal in the last four matches and that is certainly information that can worry all their fans. As I said at the beginning of the text, I honestly think that the English team will not play here with 100% of their abilities and thus risk an injury to one of the more important players against the very grumpy Italians. The general public in England is very dissatisfied with the choice of players, especially in the defensive line. Here, I am primarily thinking of Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw, who are not in the first line-up at Manchester United, but are still in the forefront of England's head coach.

The results of the last matches between each other certainly go in favor of today's home team. In the last five matches of these two national teams, Italy won two, and the English have no triumph, as the remaining three matches ended in a draw. I think that a draw is very realistic here, but as a "safer" option I choose a double chance and believe that Italy will not lose this match.