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Betting Update; Italy v Serbia with the bookmakers making Italy their 6/5 favourites

Added: (Tue Jun 16 2009)

Tournament joint-favourites Italy kick-off their Under-21 campaign against Serbia in Helsingborg but this will be no walk in the park for the 5-times champions.

Pierluigi Casiraghi’s side start as 6/5 jollies in the match odds but it is their opponents who have by far the superior pedigree at this level in recent years.

Since these two met in the 2004 final, Serbia have gone on to record a semi-final appearance (2006) before making the final again in 2007 – and beating Italy 1-0 in the group stages en route. Meanwhile the Italians failed to even make it out of their group in 2006 before finishing a disappointing 5th in 2007 after again coming 3rd in their opening group.

The Azzurri do have a talented squad this time around – the likes of Mario Balotelli and Sebastian Giovinco will be well-known by European audiences while Cagliari’s Robert Acquafresca (on loan from Inter) bagged 5 goals in the qualifying stages so will be a threat inside the box. Serbia will be missing talented striker Filip Dordevic – injured and out of the whole tournament – but this is still a tremendous squad who have been playing together for a long time (by under-21 levels). With Sweden and Belarus being the other sides in the group, both countries will be confident of progressing regardless of the result here.

I still can’t work out why Serbia can be backed at 13/5 here – Italy’s reputation as a footballing nation must play a significant factor – and at the prices I am happy to be with the ‘underdogs’. The Serbs are 143/100 with a -0 start on the Asian Handicap and is my preferred method of supporting them. This means that if the match ends a draw then your stake is returned – and given the weaker opposition awaiting the sides, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this outcome after 90 minutes. But Serbia are way too good to ignore the price on the handicap so doubling up with the -0 start is definitely the way to go in my opinion.

A quick note on who to look out for – Manchester United’s Zoran Tosic is the most well-known while Gojko Kacar (Hertha Berlin) and Miralem Sulejmani (Ajax) will also be attracting the attention of the watching scouts. The aforementioned Acquafresca is Italy’s best chance of scoring and can be backed at 13/8 to score anytime.

Recommended Bets - 1.5 pts - Serbia -0 Asian Handicap, 143/100



• All prices correct at time of writing.

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