Euro 2020 set for traditional cagey curtain raiser

Conventional wisdom states that the opening round of group games at a major tournament will be cagey affairs. Teams will be feeling each other out. Both teams will always be particularly keen to avoid defeat. Nobody wants to be on the back foot after the opening game and everyone will probably settle for a draw. It's so accepted wisdom now that it's generally overplayed as a concept, and especially so in a group stage that eliminates only eight teams from six groups and thus makes an opening defeat far less damaging than in a standard two-qualify-and-two-go-home group system.

All that being said, Turkey v Italy really is very likely to be a cagey opener where both teams feel each other out and will be particularly keen to avoid defeat. A draw will most certainly be an acceptable result for both sides ahead of games against Switzerland and Wales. Italy are on a 27-game unbeaten run and have kept clean sheets in 20 of those games.

Turkey don't quite have Italy's defensive steel but they are tough to beat having lost just two of their last 20 games. Three of those 20 have ended goalless.

 

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