Italy

The Italian national team started the tournament confidently, defeating the Turkish team 3-0. The Italians continued their good performance in the match against the main competitor in the group, the Swiss team, which they also defeated 3-0. The last group match against Wales was a bit more challenging, with Italy winning by just one goal (1-0). However, throughout the match, there was no doubt which team was stronger – the Italian team made 23 shots on goal, 6 of which were on target, while Wales only managed 3 shots on the Italian goal.

The Italians have not lost in international matches for 30 consecutive games and have achieved 11 consecutive victories. Moreover, in none of those 11 won matches did the Italian team concede a goal. The results are truly impressive, and the further we go, the more we see the Italian team being better evaluated in bookmakers' predictions. Before the start of the championship, the team was ranked around 5th-6th in terms of strength, but now they have risen to 2nd place in the bookmakers' rankings, second only to the French team.

In the match against Austria, the Italians are also confidently considered favorites, and probably the only enemy that could prevent the Italians from winning this match is themselves. If the team maintains the same or at least a similar sporting form to what we saw in the group stage, “keeps their head,” and plays as they can, we should see the Italian team in the next stage.

Austria

The Austrian national team started the tournament with a confident victory against one of the tournament's outsiders, the North Macedonian team, with a score of 3-1. This was followed by a loss to the Netherlands team with a score of 2-0, in which, although they did not score, Austria managed to create chances and were close to goals. In the decisive group match against the Ukrainian footballers, the Austrian team simply dominated – 19 shots on goal against 5, and already in the 21st minute, after a great pass from D. Alaba, C. Baumgartner put the Austrians ahead, and no more goals were scored by either team.

The Austrian team was considered a real candidate to reach the knockout stage even before the tournament, but it is clear that against potentially stronger teams, the Austrians have nothing to offer. Although the Austrian team has talented, experienced players, in terms of individual skill, this team is significantly inferior to the Italian team, so the main aspect of trying to withstand the Italians and “survive” in the match as long as possible is good defense.

No team has scored a goal against the Italians in 11 consecutive matches, so we should not expect miracles from Austria either, but the fact is that this team can put up a fight and stay in the game for a longer time.

Prediction

Italy is playing confidently in this tournament, looking great both in attack and defense. Meanwhile, the Austrian team played well against potentially weaker group teams, but against a stronger Netherlands team, they did not show that they could compete in matches with potentially stronger teams. Unfortunately, based on what we see in the tournament, Italy is possibly an even stronger team than the Netherlands, so here we can expect a confident Italian victory of 2-0 or 3-0.