It is a big night for 16 nations on Thursday as they bid to move to within one win of a place in the delayed Euro 2020 tournament next summer when the Play-Off semi-finals are played out in various spots across the continent.
There is plenty of interest on the British Isles and Ireland over the course of the evening and even though England aren’t in action in these play-offs they will still maintain an interest in them as they will meet one of the qualifiers in the group stage of the main event next summer.
Thursday’s fixtures are as follows: (7.45pm UK unless stated – UK TV in brackets)
Georgia v Belarus (5pm – Sky Football)
Bulgaria v Hungary
Iceland v Romania
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Northern Ireland (Sky Premier League)
Slovakia v Republic of Ireland (Sky Football)
Norway v Serbia
Scotland v Israel (Sky Main Event)
North Macedonia v Kosovo
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Preview
English eyes will be on two of the matches on Thursday evening. They are the ones between Scotland and Israel at Hampden Park and what is probably the pick of the matches over the course of the evening as Norway take on Serbia. The winner of the match between the two teams who win those games will go into England’s group in the main event. Northern Ireland will bid to move to within a win from a second successive European Championship campaign when they travel to take on Bosnia-Herzegovina for a place in the play-off final. Republic of Ireland also have an away game as they head to Slovakia to bid to make it through.
The other four matches all carry spots in the play-off final with them. The action starts with Georgia taking on Belarus while an improving Bulgaria side will host a Hungary team who started the latest Nations League well last month. Iceland made shockwaves at the last Euros when they reached the quarter finals but if they want to experience it again they will have to see off Romania while in the other match North Macedonia host Kosovo.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the night with the first of them coming in the form of North Macedonia who I think can have too much for a Kosovo side for whom the novelty seems to have worn off. I wouldn’t say the newbies to football at this level have been found out but clearly there is more information is readily available about them now and teams are coming up with better plans. North Macedonia were probably in the league below where they should have been in the previous Nations League and they showed that with a competitive effort against Austria and a win over Israel to end last year. Kosovo failed to beat Moldova last month which was a poor result and I’m expecting home advantage to help North Macedonia here.
The second bet I like comes from the match between Norway and Serbia where even with what is at stake here I’m expecting to see goals and plenty of them. We saw what the attacking unit of this much improved and exciting Norway side can manage when they took Northern Ireland to the cleaners in the Nations League last month but it isn’t like Serbia have no goals in them either. If there is an early goes here then this is the sort of play-off match that could ignite into something special so over 2.25 goals looks more than acceptable to me.
Tips
WON – Back North Macedonia (-0.25AH) to beat Kosovo for a 3/10 stake at 2.02 with Bet365
HALF LOSS – Back Norway vs Serbia – Over 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
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