Spain vs. Italy Bet Builder Tips: 7/1 treble for Thursday's Nations League semi-final

The second 2023 Nations League semi-final summons two European juggernauts to go against one another as Spain take on Italy on Thursday.

If you're in search of some bet builder tips for this highly competitive fixture, you're in luck. We've formed this 7/1 same-game multi using BoyleSports' bet builder tool.

This contest wagers Spain's firepower against Italy's defensive resoluteness. Given how soon we are into Luis de la Fuente's reign we aren't willing to hang our hat on a selection in the result market, so we've had to dig elsewhere.

Expect a relatively low scoring affair at FC Twente's De Grolsch Veste stadium, and here's why. The bigger fixtures where Spain face stronger opposition don't tend to produce a raft of goals.

Themselves and Morocco couldn't break the deadlock across 120 minutes of their last-16 knockout tie back in December, while the spoils were shared with Germany in a 1-1 draw during that competition's group stages.

Despite being under different stewardship, four of their six Nations League finished under this line, laying waste to the image of a free-scoring Spain side. The two recent meetings between these teams came in the form of a 1-1 draw in the EURO 2020 semi-finals, followed by a 2-1 win for Thursday's favourites in this tournament's 2021 final four meeting.

Since June 6th 2022, six of Italy's 10 competitive matches have seen under 2.5 goals. The Italians have kept a clean sheet on four occasions during this period, only conceding more than one goal on two occasions.

Like goals, we can also see corners being quite scarce between this pair. Looking at stats inside competitive matches for the two over the past year, Italy's corner counts look like this: 8 vs Malta, 7 vs England, 2 vs Hungary, 5 vs England, 4 vs Germany and 2 vs England.

In Spain's case, during de la Fuente's two matches so far, they had six and conceded three to Scotland, with 10 being taken in their EURO 2024 qualifier with Norway - conceding six and winning four.

That gives this particular leg a 62.5% success rate from this sample. Throwing in the added pressure of the occasion and we should have quite a low-key affair on our hands where Spain dominate the ball but are hard pressed in finding a way through Italy's defensive organisation.

Rounding out our three-pronged bet builder is Italy's Giovanni Di Lorenzo to be carded. The Napoli full-back enjoyed a congested club campaign, helping lead his team to their first Scudetto in 33 years and only the third in their history, as well as the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

While he may not have been a particularly prominent figure for cards at Napoli this term - picking up only six in 57 appearances across all competitions - there's a different story told on the international stage.

Since being issued his senior debut by Roberto Mancini back in 2019, the right-sided defender has been cautioned six times inside 27 games.

More recently, he's been under the watchful eye of a number of referees, picking up three yellows in his last four competitive matches for the Azzurri, including back-to-back bookings against England and then Malta last time out in March.

In this semi-final fixture, he could directly face Dani Olmo or Yeremy Pino - two forwards well versed in the art of drawing fouls. Pino only failed to draw any in six of his 36 La Liga matches for Villarreal last campaign, winning 2+ on 15 separate occasions.

Olmo, who plies his trade in the Bundesliga for RB Leipzig, was his side's second most fouled player domestically during the 2022/23 season, where he was fouled 40 times despite only featuring 23 times.