Italy will take on Switzerland in the 2022 World Cup qualifying Group C matchday 9 at the Stadio Olimpico on Friday. The kick-off is at 21:45 CEST.

Preview

It's been almost five months since Italy destroyed Switzerland 3-0 in their Euro 2020 group stage clash and now Gli Azzurri and Nati will go head-to-head in another decisive encounter on Friday. As Roberto Mancini's men and Murat Yakin's side are level on points (14) in the Group C table with just two games left in their 2022 WC qualying run, the forthcoming clash is very likely to decide who's going to secure an automatic qualification for the Qatari tournament and who's going to feature in playoffs.

As for their most recent form, Italy lost to Spain 2-1 in the 2020/21 Nations League semi-final last month before beating Belgium with the same scoreline to secure the competition's third place on October 10. The Swiss side, for their part, claimed back-to-back wins over Northern Ireland (2-0) and Lithuania (4-0) in their most recent Group C matches last month.

Team news

Marco Verratti, Nicolo Zaniolo, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Ciro Immobile will play no part for Gli Azzurri in November's internationals due to respective injury woes while Nico Elvedi, Gregor Kobel, Christian Fassnacht, Steven Zuber, Breel Embolo, Granit Xhaka and Haris Seferovic are all unavailable for Nati through the same reason.

Prediction

The Italians and the Swiss have already met each other since their clash at this summer's European Championship with Yakin's crop holding Mancini's men to a goalless draw in Basel in September. We'd say that Nati are more than capable of causing major problems to Gli Azzurri in this one as well but let's not forget about the long list of the former's injury absentees, including captain Xhaka. Thus, we'd rather stick with Italy in Friday's encounter.

Tip

Italy to win and total over 1.5 at 2.06 with 1XBET.