Venezuela vs Italy Preview & Prediction | 2026 World Baseball Classic | Semi-Final

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Perhaps a semi-final not many expected but one that should be a fantastic spectacle between Venezuela and Italy

Kick-off date/time:

How to watch on TV: UK – TNT Sports / USA – Fox Sports / USA – Netflix

How to watch online: UK – discovery+ / USA – Fox ONE / USA – Netflix

Venezuela vs Italy prediction

Despite trailing by five runs to three at one stage against defending champions Samurai Japan in the quarter-finals, Venezuela rallied with five runs of their own across the fifth and sixth innings, including a three-run shot from Wilyer Abreu, before adding a precious extra insurance run in the eighth. Japan could not respond as closer Daniel Palencia finished the job to seal a famous 8-5 Venezuelan victory.

Italy must be inspiring young people across their country in what has been without doubt the big success story of the tournament, shocking everyone to reach the semi-finals for the first time in their history. They still a boast a 100% record across this competition, winning all five matches as their offense maintains an unbelievable scoring streak which has seen them accumulate at least seven runs in every game. That’s going to give any team a big chance of winning and Italy’s pitchers have held the line well, bending but not breaking as we saw in the last eight in the Azzurri’s 8-6 win over Puerto Rico.

This fiery and fantastic Venezuela batting unit takes on an Italian team without the star names but with the red-hot bats across their line-up. We may see an end-to-end encounter similar to what was witnessed between Venezuela and Japan in the last round. Therefore, back runs to be in high supply from these two nations regardless of who reaches the final with over 10.5 of them in each of their respective quarter-final wins.

Venezuela vs Italy tip: Over 10.5 total runs