Confederations Cup
2013-06-16 - Mexico vs Italy
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: FIFA Confederations Cup
Sunday 16 June 2013 - Kick Off 8pm
This game is live on TV
Preview
After watching the Under 21 team reach the Final of the European Championship in Israel, it is time for the senior team to kick off their own international tournament as Italy play their first game in the Confederations Cup. It is a tough opener for them as they face Mexico, the team most likely to challenge Italy for a place in the Semi Finals in a Group containing the hosts Brazil and Japan.
The Italians qualified for this tournament as runners-up at the European Championships last summer and they are in a strong position to get back here for the World Cup next summer. It is clear that this is a competition that they want to do well in, but they have brought a squad that could be suffering the effects of a long domestic season.
Italy are also renowned for having a slow start to the major international tournaments, but any slow start will prove to be fatal I fear, especially with Brazil to come next week. However, they will point to the fact that they have only lost 1 of their last 11 international games as a reason to believe in them this time, although a 2-2 draw with Haiti was a particular embarrassment for them last week.
There is one big difference between the teams as they come into this Confederations Cup- while Italy are in a very strong position to get to the World Cup next summer, Mexico are struggling on that front.
Mexico have been a real feature of the biggest football tournament on the planet, but they have been struggling for goals in their qualifiers and they have drawn 5 of their last 6 games in the CONCACAF section. The manager is now under pressure from the fans and a poor performance here would perhaps see him relieved of his duties.
The team have only scored 3 goals in their last 6 qualifiers and that is a strange record with the likes of Javier Hernandez of Manchester United in the squad. The last of those was a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica and 4 of their 5 draws in the qualifiers have finished goalless.
These two nations are not familiar foes and this will only be the fifth meeting between them in the last twenty years. Mexico have generally got the better of Italy in that time, winning 2 and drawing 2 of those games. Mexico won the most recent of those games with a 2-1 scoreline.
Prediction
This is a tough game to predict as there are a couple of question marks about both teams- I can't imagine this being a very high-scoring game, and there could be a chance that both sides will settle for a draw from the game.
The Pick :
Mexico 1-1 Italy
