Turkey vs. Italy Predictions: A 0-0 draw at +900 interests

Finally we are ready to get the festival of football that is Euro 2020 underway and Neil Monnery isn't expecting it to get off with a bang...
Location: Rome, Italy
Date: Friday, June 11.
Kick Off Time: 3PM ET
TV: ESPN
Euro 2020 finally kicks off - not in 2020 as the name would indicate but a year late due to the Coronavirus pandemic. We open the tournament with Italy taking on Turkey in Group A.
The Azzurri are odds on to win the game that won’t be a huge surprise to anyone. They are playing at home and are among the favorites to win the whole thing. They are a relatively young side albeit with a wealth of experience at the back led by Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci. That defensive spine includes the outstanding Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal and they will be key in keeping Italy in games throughout the tournament.
Marco Verratti is tagged with being the midfield inspiration but the PSG man is one of the only injury doubts entering this game with a knee ligament issue. Should he start then that is a big boost for the home side.
Turkey are without their top scorer from their qualification campaign as Cenk Tosun also has suffered a knee injury. The former Everton and Crystal Palace striker may not have set the EPL on fire but has been more than respectable back in his home country with Besiktas.
With Tosun out, it will fall to 35 year-old Burak Yilmaz to get the goals needed for Turkey to advance. He plies his trade in France and ended the 2020/21 season in red hot form for Ligue 1 champions Lille. He needs to keep that up for Turkey to do any damage in this tournament.
Between the two sides they only conceded seven goals in qualifying. That is pretty darn impressive and that certainly hints towards this game not being full of goalmouth action. A low scoring Italy win is what many will be predicting but I’m going to go elsewhere.
Picks: Opening games in tournaments are often extremely cagey affairs and I think the value play is with a 0-0 scoreline. That is +900 with William Hill in NJ at the time of writing and I think that is fairly decent value. The Italians to come out 0-1 victors is +450 with Bet365 in NJ and that also piques some interest. A small bet on both scorelines spreads the risk nicely.