Italy vs Moldova prediction, preview, team news and more | International Friendly

Italy host Moldova in a friendly at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence on Wednesday, with the Azzurri preferring a rather low-key match to prepare for their two UEFA Nations League clashes this month.

Roberto Mancini's side face a trip to Warsaw to play Poland, before welcoming the Netherlands to Milan for the return fixture at the San Siro.

#Azzurri 🇮🇹#Florenzi ahead of Wednesday's friendly against #Moldova 🇲🇩: "A win would be important for our world ranking."👉 https://t.co/IQrwwUEYncThe defender also talked about his excellent start at Paris Saint-Germain: "I've been warmly welcomed and am playing my game." pic.twitter.com/YCUYaPj1m1

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@azzurri) October 5, 2020

Last month, a Nicolo Barella goal gave the Italians a superb 1-0 win in Amsterdam against the Netherlands, in a game that they thoroughly dominated.

That was a nice shot in the arm for Mancini, who saw his side frustrated in a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina before that trip to Amsterdam.

Moldova are not in the same league of pedigree as the Italians, and play two tiers below the Azzurri in the Nations League. They began their campaign with a home draw against Kosovo, before going down to Serbia in their second game.

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Italy vs Moldova Head-to-Head

Italy have a 100% record against the Moldovans thus far. They have faced each other only four times - in qualifying for the 1998 and 2006 World Cups.

Italy conceded only twice in those four games, but those count for little now, not least because of how long ago that happened.

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Italy vs Moldova Team News

Italy

#Azzurri 🇮🇹Roberto #Mancini's squad for the upcoming international window 💪📋Article 👉 https://t.co/FW2vSWur22#VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/jksHdUat89

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@azzurri) October 2, 2020

Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti is expected to start this friendly, after missing the bulk of Italy's action in the previous international break.

Napoli trio, Lorenzo Insigne, Alex Meret and Giovani Di Lorenzo have all been excluded from the squad, with COVID-19-enforced restrictions in place in Naples, and within the Napoli squad.

Mancini has named a rather large 34-man contingent for the current set of international, and that means there is an opportunity for several fringe players to win another international cap.

Moldova

Moldova are not the most well-endowed in terms of resources or depth, so they are unlikely to make the number of changes between their last game and this friendly, that Italy are capable of.

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Italy vs Moldova Predicted XIs

Italy (4-3-3): Gianluigi Donnarumma; Alessandro Florenzi, Angelo Ogbonna, Francesco Acerbi, Cristiano Biraghi; Jorginho, Marco Verratti; Lorenzo Pellegrini, Stefano Sensi, Nicolo Barella; Ciro Immobile

Moldova (4-4-2): Alexei Koselev; Sergiu Platica, Victor Mudrac, Veaceslav Posmac, Igor Armas; Radu Gînsari, Vladim Rata, Catalin Carp, Artur Ionita; Vitalie Damascan, Mihail Caimacov

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Italy vs Moldova Predictions

With Italy likely to field a much-changed XI, and experimentation with personnel and tactics likely to be the order of the day, this is not going to be an easy game to predict.

However, whatever combination of players they put out, Italy should have enough quality in their team to beat Moldova.

Prediction: Italy 3-1 Moldova