It's part 2 of my weekend previews for all the Euro qualifiers and Saturday's action sees the pick of the weekend fixtures for Bo with Scotland heading to Dublin to take on Ireland in a crunch fixture from Group D. I have posted a separate preview for the big game in ireland while there are 7 further qualifiers to look at as well, including a vital tie between Northern Ireland and Romania. There's Copa America later on in the evening as well and I will post a separate preview for those fixtures later today. EURO qualification grp. I
18:00 Armenia vs Portugal - Prediction 0.1- Best Bets - No bets Portugal sit top of group I with 3 wins from 4 but have struggled for goals with only 4 strikes in those 4 fixtures and I don't have nearly enough faith in them to back them here at skinny odds on of 9/20. Armenia may only have 1 point so far, but each of their 3 defeats were by no more than 1 goal and they are likely to give Cristiano Ronaldo and co some trouble in this fixture. I'm going to avoid this fixture although you would expect Portugal to perhaps just edge this one with Cristiano likely to be the difference. 20:45 Denmark vs Serbia - Prediction 1.1- Best Bets - BTTS @1/1, Draw @12/5 It's been a miserable campaign for Serbia so far with just 1 point from 4 games and they simply have to win in Denmark if they are to harbour any ambitions of making it to next summer’s finals in France. The Danes sit 2nd in the group with a decent 7 points from their opening 4 fixtures and they will be confident of all but assuring a top 3 place with a victory here but I prefer to look for goals and given the Serbs need for a win, I think we might have ourselves a BTTS fixture here. Denmark have scored in 9 of their last 10 home fixtures, with BTTS in 5 of their last 7 in Copenhagen while the Serbs have scored in 7 of their last 8 away games with 5 of the last 7 also seeing BTTS. You can get 1/1 on BTTS and I fancy it here with Serbia's need for a win so urgent and the Danes unlikely to settle for a draw which in the end, they might just have to. BTTS @1/1 will be my best bet here but I wouldn't be surprised to see a share of the spoils as well at 12/5 odds. EURO qualification grp. F 18:00 Finland vs Hungary - Prediction 1.1- Best Bets - Draw @11/5 Hungary have made a decent start to their qualifying campaign with 8 points from 5 games so far as they bid to reach a major finals for the first time since the Mexico World Cup of 1986. The magical Magyars as they were once known have a tremendous footballing history and it would be great to see such a big name of the past re-appearing in a major tournament and I expect them to take some kind of positive result from this trip to Finland against a home side that have just 4 points from 5 games. Hungary know that 3rd place will be virtually secure with a win and with Northern Ireland and Romania meeting later on in the evening, they know that they can close the gap on at least 1 of their rivals with a win here. The Hungarians have lost just 2 of their last 10 fixtures but the opposition has hardly been stellar and while I don't expect them to lose here, I won't be backing them to claim the full 3 points with the previous meetings of the 2 sides a close affair separated by just 1 goal in favour of Hungary. Finland know that a win will close the gap on Hungary to just 1 point so they definitely still have it all to play for despite losing their last 3 matches in the section and I expect another closely fought encounter here. I'm not going for any major bets here but I might go with the draw @11/5 on a small stakes coupon. 20:45 Faroe Islands vs Greece- Prediction - Best Bets - Faroes not to lose @9/5, Faroes to win @8/1, Under 2.5 goals @3/5, Faroes to score @6/5 Greece's performance in this year's qualifying campaign has been nothing short of a tragedy as the former champions sit bottom of the section with just 2 points to their name so far and a trip to the Faroe Islands is probably the last thing this side needs at this particular moment. Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as head coach and his replacement Sergio Markarián, an unheralded Uruguayan manager has much to do if he is to restore pride in Greece's performances with qualification surely now out of reach with the gap between themselves and Northern Ireland a huge 10 points. While the Faroes have lost 6 of their last 7 at home, they are no longer the whipping boys they once were and having achieved their finest result in history by winning in Greece earlier in the campaign, they should be full of optimism coming into this fixture and I fancy they can take something from the game at 9/5 (win or draw) and to score at least 1 goal @6/5 odds. The hosts have lost each of their last 3 qualifiers by only 1 goal but they have performed with pride, and given Greece's fallibility, you have to wonder if they can pull off the upset again at 8/1 odds. The visitors have just 1 win in their last 10, no wins in the group so far and with qualification a distant dream, their motivation may struggle to match that of the hosts who will of course take huge confidence from their win in Athens last year. I expect a very low scoring affair here and a 0.0 again wouldn't be the biggest shock in the world. 8 of Greece's last 9 have gone under 2.5 goals, and 9 of their last 10 away from home have also gone under 2.5 goals. Under 2.5 goals is priced @3/5 and looks very likely when you consider the Greek numbers and their current slump which has seen them score just 1 goal in their last 6 fixtures. The Faroes are 9/5 not to lose or a big 8/1 to claim the win and both are worth a flutter although I will caveat that by saying that the Faroes have lost 20 of their last 23 home games. Are Greece really that bad? Let’s see... 20:45 Northern Ireland vs Romania - Prediction 1.1- Best Bets - Draw @12/5, N Ireland not to lose @4/7 Northern Ireland sit proudly at the top of group F following a remarkable campaign so far and they can all but secure a qualification place with a win over 2nd placed Romania at Windsor Park. Much like Hungary, it has been 30 long years since Northern Ireland qualified for a major tournament but they are now odds on at just 2/7 to qualify for next summers finals and a win here would all but guarantee a remarkable qualification. Romania though are in excellent form, unbeaten in 9 fixtures with 7 wins and 2 draws and have climbed to 12th in the FIFA World rankings so they will be confident of maintaining that record against a still fairly limited Irish outfit that relies heavily on defensive organisation and grit. The Romanians though are not the great shakes their ranking suggests (higher than the likes of Italy, England, Croatia, Chile, USA and Scotland!) and I can only assume they have achieved such a lofty position on the back of beating previously high ranked Greece in the qualifiers and Turkey in a friendly match as well as taking a draw with Argentina, also in friendly action. Sure they are in good form, but their scalps of Finland, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Faroes are hardly the stuff of legend and I don't feel the Irish have too much to fear here. Looking at the Romanian squad, I don't see anything the Irish should be afraid of with the bulk of their squad either playing in Romania or in a variety of smaller teams scattered across Europe. Not to disrespect the Romanian's but they don't have any genuine world class players that the home side need preoccupy themselves with. The previous meeting ended in a 2.0 win for Romania in Bucharest and while they did deserve the points, it took the Romanians 75 minutes to finally break the Irish down and we must remember this is a team that has qualified for just 1 finals in the last 7 so the North need to be confident and continue to believe in themselves. Northern Ireland are very strong and experienced at the back with the likes of Evans, Baird, McCauley and Cathcart providing a sold backbone and they have a fine central midfielder in Steven Davis running the show, while former Rangers man Kyle Lafferty has been in blistering form in this campaign with 5 goals in his last 4, and he will be the player Romania fears most at Windsor Park. The home side need to maintain their positivity and belieft, and I am confident they will continue to do Britain proud as the unprecedented possibility of all 4 home nations qualifying remains a genuine possibility. With the gap between Northern Ireland in 2nd and Hungary in 3rd standing at 4 points, it wouldn't surprise me if this one finished all square with a point hardly a bad result for 2 sides that look likely to now take the top 2 positions in the group. I don't expect many goals, nor too much exciting football and I wouldn't be too shocked if this one finished scoreless so the best bets here are Northern Ireland not to lose @4/7 or the more adventurous draw at 12/5. EURO qualification grp. D 18:00 Poland vs Georgia - Prediction 3.0- Best Bets - Poland to score 2 or more @1/2 I'd love to imagine that Poland will drop some points here but it doesn't look especially likely with the Poles in good form at home and Georgia rarely picking up results when they travel. Poland won 4.0 in Tbilisi in the first meeting between the 2 sides earlier in the campaign and will be thrilled to be top of this tough section with Germany, Ireland and Scotland all involved and fighting to qualify. All the signs point to a conclusive home win but the Georgians did perform well in their defeats in Scotland and at home to Germany more recently, conceding only 3 in those 2 games so I don't expect a goal glut for the Poles although in Robert Lewandoski they do have a genuine world class striker. Oh how Scotland wishes we had just one of those. Sorry Fletch. Poland will win, and if they don't, I will have a funny little smile for at least a week, depending of course on how the Scots fair in their clash with Ireland but at 2/7 odds they are too short to back however the 1/2 on them to score 2 or more is a better bet considering the form of the Poles in front of goal. Poland have scored 2 or more in 6 of their last 7 games and while Georgia aren't exactly whipping boys, I do fancy this to be comfortable enough win for the hosts. 18:00 Ireland vs Scotland - see separate preview 20:45 Gibraltar vs Germany - Prediction 0.6- Best Bets - No bets Why? Why did UEFA let Gibraltar into this competition when they don't even have their own stadium? So they could lose 7.0 to Poland in a game played in their "home" venue of Portugal? Or was it so they could put a big slab of runny egg on many a Scottish face following their equalizing goal at Hampden? Whatever the reasons, Gibraltar are here, and they have improved their performances in recent games but of course they won't get near Germany here and the final score could range from anywhere between 4 and 14.0 so I'm not going to have any bets here but for what it's worth, the bookies expect at least 6 German goals but so far do not have any prices for the over’s market. The Germans have been poor since winning the World Cup though, losing in Poland, held at home by Ireland and culminating in a 2.1 defeat to the US in a friendly international on Wednesday in Koln and while they are of course sure to win here , it's less clear how convincing they will be on the night. No bets. Bo's Best Bets Poland to score 2 or more @1/2 Denmark v Serbia - BTTS @1/1 Northern Ireland not to lose @4/7 Faroes v Greece - Under 2.5 goals @3/5 Faroes v Greece - Faroes to score @6/5 Bo's Bold Bets Denmark v Serbia - Draw @12/5 Northern Ireland v Romania - Draw @12/5 Finland v Hungary - Draw @11/5 Faroes not to lose @9/5 Comments are closed.
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