The penultimate round of matches in the UEFA Nations League get underway over the course of three different kick off times on Saturday as the race for the semi-finals as well as promotion intensifies on what should be a good day of football.
As well as promotion and places in the knockout stages teams will be looking to avoid relegation which could harm their chances of making future major tournaments so this should be a very competition day of action.
League A
There are four matches from the top league on Saturday where the pick of the matches comes along in Group 3 as the leaders and defending champions Portugal take on the world champions France in a match where the winners will top the group and need only a point on Tuesday night to secure a semi-final place. Elsewhere in Group 3, Sweden host World Cup finalists Croatia with the home side still looking for their first point of the campaign and know if they lose they will be relegated.
The rest of the action in this league comes from Group 4 where there is a three-way battle for top spot emerging. Two of those sides are involved in the match of the night in this group in Leipzig where Germany host Ukraine with the losers probably seeing their chance of a semi-final spot disappearing. It is Spain who currently lead the way though and they’ll be looking to preserve that advantage when they head to Basel to face Switzerland.
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League C
The action from League C on Saturday night comes from Group 1 where the top two sides avoid each other which means they are both in matches that neither can afford to lose as they race for top spot and the promotion that comes with it. Luxembourg currently lead the way and they head to Cyprus while Montenegro are right on their heels waiting for a slip up. They are away to Azerbaijan in what could be a trickier assignment than they would want.
League D
We have a full set of action in League D on Saturday and it forms the early starts. In Group 1 the Faroes Islands will secure promotion to League C if they find a win in Latvia. Even a draw is highly likely to see them move up a division. The other match in the group sees second placed Malta looking to keep their outside hopes of promotion alive when they host Andorra. The other match comes in Group 2 where San Marino look to make it two matches in this section without defeat when they host a Gibraltar side who will wrap up the group if they win the game.
Betting
I was tempted to take Gibraltar but I can’t bring myself to bet on a match between them and San Marino so I will go with just the one bet which comes in the next league up where Cyprus play host to Luxembourg in a clash where I really like the visitors, particularly with the draw cover that is on offer. I’ve written in the past in these Nations League previews that Luxembourg football is on the rise and that has clearly been the case in this campaign.
Luxembourg have won three of their four matches in this group with their only loss coming against Montenegro which isn’t a disaster of a result in terms of their progression. Cyprus look to have regressed quite badly though. They have picked up just the one point in the group which came in their last match against Azerbaijan but they haven’t scored a goal in any of their four matches and although they haven’t been getting thrashed you can’t see them getting anything from this without scoring. Luxembourg got revenge against Montenegro last month and I expect them to stay in control of their own destiny with a win here.
Tips
Back Luxembourg (-0.25AH) to beat Cyprus for a 3/10 stake at 2.02 with BetVictor
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