Macedonia vs Italy Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Macedonia continued their inevitable journey towards World Cup qualification disappointment on Thursday when they lost 2-1 at home to Israel. They went behind to two first half goals from the visitors, and despite pulling one back with half an hour remaining, they never truly looked like getting anything from the game.

This made it two defeats in a row for Macedonia after their failure in Albania back in September. Fortunately for them they might be able to avoid bottom spot in the qualifying group with the presence of minnows Liechtenstein, but there is an impossibly slim chance that they’ll cause any trouble at the top of the pile.

This defeat to Israel made it six losses of Macedonia’s last seven games, with their only success being a 3-1 win at home to Azerbaijan. They have only won two of their last 17 outings, losing 13 of them.

Italy couldn’t make it six points out of six on Thursday when they hosted Spain in one of the key clashes in this group. They are the two favourites for the one automatic qualification position in this group, so the two matches between them will prove crucial come the end of qualifying.

A 1-1 draw at home to a Spain side who had recently won a game 8-0 is no bad thing, but they would have liked to get a home win under their belts to take the pressure off their trip to Spain in a year’s time.

This followed on from a 3-1 victory in Israel that got them over their Euro 2016 disappointment. The Italy squad had been criticised for a lack of talent, but the organisation of Antonio Conte and the all-Juventus world class defence took them to the quarter finals before they were eliminated on penalties by Germany. They followed this with a 3-1 loss to France in a friendly following Conte’s departure to Chelsea.

Italy’s back line is rightly praised, but they haven’t kept as many clean sheets as you would expect. They have kept the opposition at bay in just two of their last 13 away matches, and they’re facing a Macedonia side who have scored 15 of their last 23 at home. In the shorter term, they have netted in four of their last six home games.

In my opinion, the bookies are overestimating Italy’s clean sheet potential here, and I think that bet has a real chance of coming in. Realistically I expect Italy to get the win though, so odds of 7/2 for Italy to Win and Both Teams to Score look incredibly good value. I’m backing that alongside a 3-1 correct score prediction at 16/1.