Italy and Belgium meet in the UEFA Nations League on Sept. 25, and if you want to watch it from outside Italy, you need a trick: a virtual private network, or VPN, that lets you pretend you are in the country where the broadcast lives. The match kicks off at 2.45 p.m. ET from the Stadio Olimpico, and RaiPlay carries it for free — provided you have the right software to fool the system.
Here is how the setup works, step by step, and why it raises a question about who is really doing the selling here.
The Match and the Stream
Italy vs. Belgium in the Nations League airs on RaiPlay, the national broadcaster’s streaming service. That is the easy part. The hard part is that RaiPlay is geo-restricted to Italy. If you try to open it from London, Paris, or New York, you get a message telling you to go away. That is where the VPN comes in.
A VPN hides your real digital location by wrapping your internet traffic in an encrypted tunnel and sending it through a server in a country of your choosing. Set your server to Italy, and RaiPlay thinks you are sitting in Rome. The result: you can watch the match for free, no subscription required.
The Recommended Tool
The article names ExpressVPN as the recommended route. The method is simple:
- Sign up for ExpressVPN.
- Download the app to your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop.
- Open the app and connect to a server in Italy.
- Visit RaiPlay.
- Watch the match.
That is the method. It is simple, and it works. The catch is that ExpressVPN is not free. It costs money to subscribe, and the article spends considerable space explaining how to avoid paying.
“By leveraging these offers, you can watch Italy vs. Belgium without committing your cash.”
That is the pitch. It is also the loop. The article is promoting a product whose primary purpose is to let you watch a free broadcast from abroad. The product itself is not free, but the refund window makes it costless — in theory.
The Money-Back Gambit
ExpressVPN runs a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the article treats this as the key to the deal. You pay for the subscription, stream the match, and then cancel within the window. Your money is refunded, and you got the game for nothing.
The Cost of the Product
ExpressVPN costs $12.99 per month, or $68.40 for a two-year subscription that includes an extra four months free. That is a discount of 81%, according to the article. The subscription also comes with a year of free unlimited cloud backup.
The one-month plan is the cheapest entry point. Pay $12.99, watch the match, and cancel before the month ends. The two-year plan is the bigger commitment, but it adds the cloud storage benefit.
Our View of It
The pitch works because the broadcast is genuinely free. RaiPlay is not charging you a cent to watch Italy vs. Belgium. The only cost is the VPN subscription, and the refund window makes that cost temporary. If you only care about this one match, the math is simple: pay $12.99, watch the game, and walk away.
The larger question is whether this is a sustainable model. Geo-restrictions are common among streaming services, and the response has become standard: buy a VPN. The market for these tools is large, and the business depends on people wanting to watch things where they are not supposed to be.
For now, the match is the thing. Italy faces Belgium at 2.45 p.m. ET on Sept. 25, and if you want to see it from across the ocean, the path is laid out plainly. Sign up for the VPN, connect to Italy, and enjoy the game.
Source material: “How to watch Italy vs. Belgium online for free,” Mashable.
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