The first international break of the new season is a momentous one in Europe as the new UEFA Nations Cup gets underway with the first two matchdays of the competition. The first of those comes on Thursday night as 18 sides dip their toes into the water.
All four groups see action on Thursday including a particularly juicy clash between the last two World Cup winners. Wales and Republic of Ireland collide in another interesting match to get their campaigns underway.
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Group A
There is only one match in Group A on Thursday evening but what a belter of a match it promises to be. Germany will be looking to put their disastrous World Cup behind them when they face the side who won the tournament in France, who will be looking to show that they can carry the tag of world champions without it affecting them too much.
Group B
Over here in the UK the big match in this group comes in B4 where Wales take on Republic of Ireland. This is a revenge mission for Wales who lost their final World Cup qualifying match to Ireland in Cardiff to deny them a play-off spot. The other match in this group comes from B1 where the Czech Republic play host to Ukraine.
Group C
There are two matches across the sections in Group C with Norway looking to showcase their talents in C3 when they play host to a Cyprus side for whom this event gives them a chance to make progress. Two sides who might feel they are in the wrong group meet in C4 when Slovenia take on Bulgaria in one of the more competitive matches of the evening.
Group D
It is a busy night in Group D of the competition and it gets underway early in D1 when Kazakhstan host Georgia in a battle between two sides who will be targeting promotion. In the same group Latvia will look to get themselves back on track when they host Andorra. In D4 Armenia look to have a great chance to open up with a win when they host Liechtenstein with Gibraltar hosting Macedonia in the other match.
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Betting
If this set of fixtures was in the next international break there could be a few bets that I might have taken given the line up of them but with some European sides only having played a couple of games this is always a tricky task so with that in mind I’ll go with just the one bet.
That comes in the big match at Cardiff where the influence of Gareth Bale on the Wales side should be enough to see them past a Republic of Ireland side who are littered with injuries and who are without a couple of key players because they’ve fallen out with Roy Keane. Bale didn’t play when Wales went out of the World Cup to Ireland when James McClean scored the only goal. He is missing here which could be key. Aaron Ramsey is available for Wales and they look much the better side for this one.
Tips
WON – Back Wales to beat Republic of Ireland for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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