The middle match of the three at Euro 2020 on Sunday sees Austria looking to pick up an early three points when they take on the lowest ranked side in the competition in North Macedonia in Bucharest in the Group C starter.
These two sides will both fancy their chances in this match but at the same time they will know there are two potentially harder matches to come later in the group so there will be a real emphasis on getting a positive result here.
Where to watch
We head back over to ITV1 in the UK for this second match of a tasty looking Sunday. The programme begins at 4.15pm with the match kicking off at 5pm.
Austria
If we are being honest we could get absolutely anything from Austria here. There is enough talent in their side to make an impression on the tournament. That was the case in 2016 when actually the Austrians were possible dark horses for many people but they never got going whatsoever and in the end struggled badly. They will be eager to avoid a repeat of that here so it will be interesting if they try to ease their way into the tournament or whether they look to go after it.
There is no doubting there is not plenty of talent in this Austrian squad but whenever I’ve seen them recently they have looked pretty ordinary. A side with top European players such as David Alaba and Marcel Sabitzer shouldn’t look poor but it might just be that for as good as those two are individually, they might just thrive in a club setting and not with weaker players for the national side. It would help Austria immensely if those two can be at their best and carry the team a little bit.
North Macedonia
The usual banal clichés about it being a great day for North Macedonia regardless of the result here will no doubt be trotted out, but having watched North Macedonia a few times in the last few years courtesy of them often being a great bet in their Nations League matches, I think they have more about themselves than to think like that. I don’t think they would kid themselves into thinking they are genuine runners for the tournament but I certainly don’t expect them to come here to make up the numbers.
When you look the statistics for North Macedonia their games are generally high scoring and actually when you boil that down to competitive matches there aren’t many where they don’t find the net themselves. Despite good efforts in the Nations League and qualifying for this tournament, the Macedonians probably went under the radar until they stunned Germany in their latest World Cup qualifier. The world will have taken notice of that so they now have to deal with being respected by the opposition which might make things a bit tougher.
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Team News
Austria may have to do without a couple of important players from the start in Julian Baumgartlinger and Marko Arnautovic, both of whom have been carrying injuries recently and haven’t got the game time in their legs to go the full 90 minutes.
North Macedonia have reported no new injury concerns going into this tournament. They have been boosted by the news that Ennis Bardhi is available to them having missed the lead up to the event due to testing positive for Covid-19.
Betting
I’ve made no secret in the outright previews that I have written that I don’t like or rate this Austria side particularly highly. That doesn’t mean that they can’t win this match because this is the debut in the tournament of North Macedonia after all, but they are terrible value to do it at odds on. The facts are that you have to go back to the 1990 World Cup for the last time Austria won a match at a major tournament and things like that become mental after a while.
The whole ‘North Macedonia’ have nothing to lose lines are nonsense but what they do have is the freedom to play without that mental pressure and give this a right good go. There is every chance they will be involved in the play-offs for a spot at the World Cup later in the year so this isn’t a side who are competing in their only tournament as a one-off necessarily. They are a very offensive side which in itself should work perfectly against a questionable Austria back line and although they are vulnerable themselves at the back, are Austria good enough to take advantage? I’m not convinced so I’m happy to be on the debutants on the Asian lines.
Tips
Back North Macedonia (+0.75AH) to beat Austria for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with Bet365
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