Turkey – Italy: Date, TV Broadcast & Bookmaker Forecast at a Glance
The anticipation for the EURO 2021 is so great with us that betting fans already want to provide an overview of the highly anticipated opening match of the EURO 2020 between Turkey and Italy.
With all the important information, the latest news on tickets and spectators, as well as the dates of the TV broadcasts.
Everything is garnished with a first bookmaker forecast and EM 2021 tips, which can be used for the extremely popular EM betting games in offices or among friends – or of course for early EM bets.
When will Turkey – Italy take place?
The duel between Turkey and Italy is the opening match of the European Championship 2021, which, as is well known, will be played across Europe.
The match will take place on 11/06/2021 at the Stadio Olimpico di Roma, kick-off is at 21:00.
Who will broadcast the match live on TV?
In Germany, ARD and ZDF have jointly secured the television rights for the 2021 European Championship and will take turns broadcasting. ARD will be the first to do so. In other words, “DasErste” will broadcast the opening match between Turkey and Italy, while ZDF will broadcast the European Championship final on 11 July 2021.
Initially, the rights package included all 51 matches of the EURO 2020, but the public broadcasters gave a sub-licence to the pay-TV MagentaTV, which will broadcast all European Championship matches live. Ten matches will be exclusively shown live on the pay-TV channel, but matches of the German national team are not affected.
Since the end of May it has been clear that ARD will broadcast the opening match of the European Championship between Turkey and Italy. The exact distribution between ARD and ZDF is as follows: DasErste will broadcast 21 matches, the station from Mainz 20, including the final.
In Austria, almost the entire European Championship 2021 will be broadcast live by ORF on free-TV and as a live stream. The broadcaster Oe24.tv has obtained the sub-licence for nine European Championship matches, six of them live matches exclusively and three live matches in cooperation with ORF. One of these “cooperation games” is the opening match between Turkey and Italy.
In Switzerland, the European Championship matches flicker across the screens of the public broadcaster SRG.
Turkey – Italy: Where will it be played?
Turkey’s clash with Italy will take place at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. The Olympic Stadium was opened in 1932 and holds more than 72,000 spectators.
So although officially listed as an away team, the Squadra Azzurra can count on home advantage in the Eternal City.
The legendary stadium, which saw Germany beat Argentina 2-1 in the 1990 World Cup final, is the venue for two other preliminary round matches and a quarter-final.
Tickets & Spectators: At least 25% capacity utilisation
Although the European Football Championship can take place despite the Corona pandemic, football fans must unfortunately reckon with restrictions that may vary from venue to venue.
Those who were looking forward to getting their hands on a European Championship ticket for the opening match between Italy and Turkey will have to fear for their place in the Olympic Stadium because of the pandemic.
The authorities have allowed a capacity utilisation of at least 25%, which is roughly equivalent to 16,000 spectators.
But that could still change, because how exactly it will be determined which tickets will remain valid and which will not has not yet been decided. The same applies to any entry requirements.
In any case, the basic requirement for entering the stadium is a negative COVID-19 test result. There are also different time windows for entry.
Turkey in for the 5th time
Turkey finished second in their group and made it to the 2021 European Championship, where they had a thrilling duel with France for the top spot in their group.
Despite a 2-0 home win and a 1-1 away draw in Paris, the Turks had to let the world champions pass. The decisive factor was a disappointing draw in Istanbul against Iceland.
Team boss Senol Günes has led Turkey to their fifth European Championship finals overall, and the goal is clearly the round of 16.
In 2016 in France, Turkey failed to achieve this goal. As one of the two worst third-placed teams in the group, the Turks, whose best European Championship result was a place in the semi-finals in 2008, had to go home.
This time it should be better and when looking at the Turkish European Championship squad one thing is striking: the team is relatively young, even if attacker Burak Yilmaz from French champions OSC Lille is already 35 years old.
Hakan Calhanoglu is the mainstay of the Günes team, and Turkey can also rely on two top central defenders: Ozan Kabak from Liverpool FC and Merih Demiral, who earns his money at Juventus Turin.
Italy’s road to the “home” European Championship
Italy has qualified for its “group home” European Championship with aplomb. The Azzurri finished their qualifying group on top with the maximum points after ten victories (goal difference 37:4).
Their opponents in Group J were Finland, Greece, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia and Liechtenstein. Accordingly, the Azzurri had no difficulty whatsoever in qualifying for the Pan-European European Championship.
Roberto Mancini’s team was thus quickly confirmed as a participant in the European Championship, and since Rome was chosen as the venue for three group matches and a quarter-final, Italy’s European Championship team can at least rely on home advantage in the group phase.
In addition to Turkey, Italy will face Switzerland and Wales in Group A of the European Championship.
National coach Roberto Mancini will tackle the 2021 European Championship with a mixture of old hands and “young guns”. The former includes the experienced defensive duo Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci (together 70 years old), the latter 25-year-old Gianluca Mancini.
Marco Verratti is expected to pull the strings in midfield, while Ciro Immobile is the clear number one up front. The Lazio player is one of the betting contenders for the top scorer at EURO 2020, although he is not at the top of the list.
Direct comparison Turkey – Italy
Duels with Turkey are not uncommon for Italy, but it does not happen all the time that the two cross paths. There have been three encounters since the turn of the millennium.
The Azzurri and Turkey have crossed swords ten times so far, with Italy having seven victories to their credit. The Turks have yet to win a match, with three draws being the highest of the scores so far.
The match at Euro 2021 is not a premiere, as Italy and Turkey already met at the 2000 finals in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Italians won 2-1 in Arnhem, with Antonio Conte and Filippo Inzaghi scoring the goals for the Squadra Azzurra on penalties. Okan Buruk had equalised in the meantime.
Since then, there have been two other meetings between Turkey and Italy (2002 and 2006), both of which ended 1-1.
European Championship betting: Prediction for Turkey – Italy
According to the bookmakers, the starting position is more than clear. Günes’ team will start the clash with the 1968 European champions as the underdogs.
However, Italy’s team is in the midst of a rebuilding process. After the disgraceful failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Roberto Mancini is expected to lead the Squadra Azzurri to new strength.
The Italians are on the right track. In the Nations League, Mancini’s squad won the group and thus reached the Final Four. They also got off to a good start in the World Cup qualifiers with three wins in a row.
These are not good omens for a surprise for the European Championship participants from Turkey. Especially as the Gunes team is extremely difficult to assess. After their relegation to the C-tier of the Nations League, a sensational 4:2 victory over the Netherlands followed at the start of the World Cup qualifiers.
This was followed by a 3-0 win away in Norway, before a 3-3 defeat against Latvia put a damper on things.
Turkey vs. Italy: What do the bookmakers expect?
On the one hand, consistently good performances for over two years – Italy’s last defeat in a competitive match was against Portugal in the Nations League in September 2018 – on the other hand, fickle Turks who are always good for a surprise – both positive and negative.
It’s no wonder that the betting providers we tested assume a clear case in favour of the hosts in their Turkey Italy odds.
Especially as the Azzurri’s offensive has been in top form. 37 goals in the European Championship qualifiers were only topped by Belgium (40 goals). In the last five competitive matches, Italy always scored at least 2 goals.
The Turkish attack has also been performing at a similar level recently. In four of the last five matches, Günes’ team scored at least three goals in each game.
However, a look at the first finals since 1988 speaks against a goal festival at the start of the European Championship:
Only in three of the eight opening matches were more than 2.5 goals scored. However, with only one exception, both teams scored.
In view of these statistics, the online bookmakers believe that there will be a few goals to see, even if experience shows that the opponents are initially cautious at the start of a European Championship.
