There is another action-packed day of action at the women’s World Cup on Monday Down Under, with Italy Women and Argentina Women getting their campaigns under way in their clash at Eden Park at 7am. We’ve previewed the tie and given you our suggested bets.

While the men’s teams of both countries have fine records in World Cups, neither Italy nor Argentina have won the tournament in the women’s game, and they will be up against it after being drawn in Group G alongside Sweden and South Africa.

Italy are as short as 3/5 to win this contest, which comes as no real surprise considering they reached the quarter-finals of the 2019 tournament.

Argentina have only ever competed in three World Cups, but they have never won a match on the world stage, and they are 4/1 to win on Monday, while the draw is priced at 5/2.

Team news

Italy will be without Martina Rosucci for the World Cup due to injury, but coach Milena Bertolini has no other major injuries to deal with.

Bertolini decided to leave experienced centre-back Sara Gama out of her squad, and will instead be hoping that Martina Lenzini and Elena Linari can deliver the goods at the heart of defence.

Argentina boss German Portanova will lean heavily on Mariana Larroquette throughout the tournament, with the Orlando Pride forward having scored 12 goals in 29 appearances for her country.

Portanova has no major injury concerns, and she will hope that continues as her squad tries to improve a dismal World Cup record.

Draw @ 5/2

Both Italy and Argentina come into the tournament with just one defeat in their last five games. Le Azzurre still have a point to prove, though, having lost four games between October 2022 and February 2023.

Argentina’s only defeat in their recent run came via penalties against Venezuela, but their dismal World Cup record means they are easy to oppose until they have proved they can handle the big occasion.

Italy only picked up one point at last year’s European Championships in a disappointing campaign, and nerves may play their part.

They were held by Morocco in a recent friendly and only edged New Zealand 1-0 last time out, so are perhaps not at their peak and Argentina can earn a positive result.

Both teams to score @ 11/10

The stats suggest that both teams have improved at the back, with neither Italy nor Argentina conceding in their previous two warm-up matches.

That is something of an improvement for Italy as they endured a run of eight consecutive matches where they conceded at least one goal.

Argentina have been amongst the goals of late and while they have also been solid defensively, Italy do represent a step up in class on their recent opponents.

With Sweden also in Group G, these two sides will want to hit the ground running in what could be a definitive game for progress, perhaps knowing that they are likely to come up short against Blagult.

Both teams will also be desperate to improve their disappointing records at the World Cup, so we expect an end-to-end battle in which both can score, while a correct 1-1 scoreline is tempting at 13/2.