Italian football journalist James Richardson joined Off The Ball to give an insight to a team suddenly of particular interest to Irish fans - Italy.

Richardson has been enjoying the Azzurri's performances in Euro 2020, and believes the team is in part a reflection of the style and skill of Roberto Mancini.

"What we're seeing with Italy, is that I think that it's a nice thing that it dovetails with how [Mancini] likes to play, with his vision - the Italians call it estrozzo - one of the flair players of his generation," Richardson said.

"Possibly, the Italian Federation in a rare example of joined-up thinking actually selected Mancini because he fits with their programme rather than it being a total coincidence.

"However it came about, it has worked out fabulously well - having said that, I fully expect England to beat Italy on Sunday night."

Well, there is a take we did not entirely expect.

England v Italy

Richardson explained why he feels England may have the better of it at Wembley.

"The Italians have one or two things that put the wind up them. One is people playing at them with speed, the other is teams who put pressure on them.

"At club level, English sides have generally given Italian sides an awful lot of problems because they can't deal with the pace and the pressure. It is a different style of play in Serie A, a different pace as well. You almost get the feeling like members of the team are like 'Can you just hold on for a second?' as the English players whizz in on them.

"In the group stages, they were pressing high themselves and getting into opponents' faces; however, the game against Spain, we didn't see that from Italy. What we saw was them beginning the game brightly, but when the Spanish began to gain some midfield dominance with their extra midfielder, they retreated and fell back on their default.

"The Italians were pretty ragged [against Spain.] We've seen them operate that system in the past and be a lot more coherent as a unit - this was last-ditch stuff. They got through against Spain due to some terrible Spanish finishing. Would they be able to exhibit a similar kind of mentality against England? I don't think so."

Immobile, Verratti and Barella

Richardson does believe that it will be an even match, but identified some areas that need to be improved.

"At national team level, it's true that Italy have had the better of the few meetings they've had. You have to go back to 1977 since the last win.

"However, the Italian papers mentioned today that this is the best England team since 1966.

"If Italy come out against England like they did in the group stages or the way they did against Belgium, then maybe they can get lucky on the break. If [Ciro] Immobile can have a good game - and he's crying out for one - then there is potential to do something.

"If  Verratti and Barella have  a better game than they did against Spain - I think they were a big disappointment - then the Italians could establish some dominance against Phillips and Rice.

"There are two things that come out of this: one is Immobile. If you play the way that Italy are probably going to play at some stage, camped out the back trying to hit balls out to hit Immobile, at the moment he's not looking like he's going to do that.

"The second is that the player who looked the bravest, the most composed, who brought the most to the Azzurri in terms of dynamism is Spinazzola. He won't be there."

Football on Off The Ball, with Paddy Power’s SaveOurGame, Donating 10k to Irish football for every goal England score at the Euros.

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