Italy vs Netherlands Prediction & Betting Tips - Euro Volley

Prediction published on 11/09/2023, 09:55  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 11/09/2023 at 10:56 in Euro Volley Predictions

Second favorites  and defending champions Italy face the Netherlands in the 2023 Men's European Volleyball Championship quarter finals. Only Poland are ahead of the Italians in the betting to win the title. The winners of this match will take on either France or Romania in Thursday's semi-final. The Italians are ranked third in the world (second in Europe) and that's seven places higher than their opponents. Italy finished top of Pool A and won all five or their matches. Only two sets were dropped by them, those coming in their final pool match against Germany who finished the pool in third place, more about them later in this preview.  Only Poland dropped fewer points than Italy in the pool stages. The last 16 saw Italy get a 3-0 win over North Macedonia, only losing 47 points.  That made it 16 wins in a row in the European Championships finals.

The Netherlands finished fifth in the last European Championships held two years ago. It's 26 years since they became European Champions and face a tough task here to stay in the 2023 tournament. They finished second in Pool C winning all their games bar the 3-1 loss they suffered at the hands of Poland. The Dutch side took on Germany in the last 16 and it was a tough battle for them to get through to this quarter final. It didn't look that way when they won the first two sets but the next couple were won by the Germans. The Netherlands squeezed through by winning the final set 15-12. A tough quarter final awaits them and we go for Italy to win 3-0.