The penultimate set of European Qualifiers in the qualifying event for the FIFA World Cup 2022 conclude on Saturday when the three groups which have yet to be in action in this international window get the chance to showcase their talents.
We’ve already seen a couple of nights of competitive football with teams looking to take a step closer to Qatar or actually book their place there. France, Belgium and the Netherlands could all secure their qualification for the tournament over the course of the day.
Group D
This group is quite an intriguing one. The defending champions France will book their ticket to the desert if they pick up a win when they play host to the bottom team Kazakhstan in Paris. The big match in this group is the other one though. Ukraine currently sit second but they are the team who are not in action here. That means whoever wins the early kick off between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Finland will go into the final match in second spot and in control of their own destiny with regards to the playoff spot.
Group E
Belgium have dominated this group as you would have expected them to. They have only dropped two points in the campaign so far and assuming that record remains intact when they host Estonia then the Red Devils will book their place at the World Cup. Events are getting interesting in behind them though. Wales are guaranteed a playoff place courtesy of their Nations League exploits but they would want a chance to be at home in them and in order for that to be possible they will need to finish second in the group. They will move into that position with a win when they welcome Belarus to Cardiff.
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Group G
This has arguably been the most fascinating of the qualifying groups. Four teams have been battling it out for automatic qualification but last month that was reduced to three. The Netherlands lead the way and the Dutch could even qualify here. In order to do that they will need to beat Montenegro away. They would still need second placed Norway to drop points at home to Latvia which seems unlikely. Norway will at least stay second with a win but they will need to win because third placed Turkey are only two points behind them and they look to have a penalty kick of a win against Gibraltar.
Betting
I’ll focus my betting attention on Cardiff where with Gareth Bale back I expect Wales to do the business even though Kieffer Moore is suspended. Wales host Belarus in a match which the home side should win but maybe not by the landslide some might expect them to come through by. These two met in a friendly here two seasons ago and Bale and Aaron Ramsey aside the Welsh side which will play here played in that game and Wales only won 1-0. Bale came off the bench for the final 40 minutes of that match so that might temper big scoring expectations.
Realistically this match is all about winning and having something left in the tank for the clash with Belgium on Tuesday evening. This isn’t about running up the score and having nothing left and we saw evidence of that in Tallinn last time out when Wales scored and never really went in search of a second. They might be a little more adventurous here but only once in 18 home matches have they scored three goals and that was against a Finland who played 78 minutes with 10 men. 19 matches ago was the only time in five years that Wales have scored more than three in a home match so history tells us that should Wales win this match it won’t be a high scoring game. When you consider Belarus have failed to score in five of their seven matches in this group more than 3.5 goals feels very unlikely so Wales to win and under 3.5 goals looks the way to approach this one to me.
Tips
Back Wales to win and under 3.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
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