Italy U20 vs Mali U20 Predictions

The last 16 took out favourites France, which leaves the Under 20 World Cup looking wide open ahead of the start of the quarter-finals this week. Arguably the biggest of the four matches is the encounter between African champions Mali and contenders Italy. The Italians have brought a young squad to the tournament, but they have made a real impression so far. While Italy have been priced up as the favourites, we can see Mali picking up a result after their impressive run to the last eight.

Italy are coming off a narrow 1-0 victory over hosts Poland in the last round, which guided them into the last eight. They’re now out to improve on their third-place finish in South Korea two years ago, which was their best ever performance at this competition. The Italians head into the game as the side to beat, having moved out in front in the betting to win the whole tournament. However, can they make it past Mali to keep their trophy hopes alive?

Mali have been pushed out to the fringes in the betting, but the two remaining African sides are the finalists from this year’s Under 20 African Cup of Nations. That points to the pair being in good shape going into the final stages of the tournament. While Mali can be seen as underdogs, they have pulled off some eye-catching results to date. In their last two games they’ve met two of the competition’s favourites, going up against Argentina and France.

In those clashes Mali have continued their attacking style. They were able to see off Argentina on penalties after a 2-2 draw, while they lost their final group game 3-2 to France. They managed to make it out of the group thanks to a 4-3 win over Saudi Arabia, which shows how strong they going forward and how vulnerable they can be at the back. Overall Mali have scored in their previous eight games, but will they hold out against the Italians?

Italy have only failed to score in their final group game – which was a dead rubber anyway. Otherwise, the Italians have found the back of the net. It’s hard to see them failing to score on Friday, given that Mali approach this one having seen both teams score in all of their matches at this tournament, while BTTS has also landed in Mali’s last six games in all competitions. With that in mind, we’re backing both teams to score as our tip here.