Soccer

Could Italy be the dark horses of Euro 2020?

After failing to qualify for the Russia 2018 World Cup, Italy are back and with a new group of upcoming players - they have a point to prove.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Nicolo Barella and Federico Chiesa make up the spine of a rejuvenated Italian side.

Roberto Mancini has overseen the rebuild and after being appointed in 2018, the improvements within the squad are clear to see.

Planet Sport betting expert Pete Farries believes the Italians are the ones to watch out for this summer.

"They won every single game in qualifying, they conceded four goals in that period.

"I don't understand why no one's talking about Italy particularly."

Since Mancini's arrival, Italy have only lost two of the 32 matches he's been in charge of and he's lowered the average age of the squad to 27.

Pete even believes that they have what it takes to go all the way: "For me, I think that Italy are going to win this, they'll certainly be in the mix so I'm going with Italy".

They take on Turkey in tonight's curtain raiser, a side Planet Sport journalist Scott Allen is backing to be the dark horse of the competition: "They've got a very interesting team, lots of players under the radar.

"Yilmaz is the Roger Milla of the Turkish team at 35, scoring goals for Lille, they won the championship with him."
He even went as far to say that he's backing the Turkish striker to be the top scorer at the tournament this summer.
Tonight's match-up between the sides should give us a good indication as to where they are at the moment.

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