The next round of European qualifying for the 2018 World Cup begins on Thursday night with three groups getting things underway. In all there are nine matches on what is a fairly busy night including a clash between two of Europe’s heavyweights. With two matches in the next week all 18 sides will want to be bang at it here to take the pressure off the second match.
Group D
Wales continue their quest to get back to a World Cup when they head to Vienna to take on an Austrian side who have stoked the fire by claiming Wales were lucky during Euro2016. Republic of Ireland will be looking to bounce back from defeat to Serbia in their opening game when they host Georgia while Serbia head to Moldova in the other game.
Group G
This is where the big match takes place as Italy host Spain just four months after they met in the knockout stages of Euro2016. Liechenstein host Albania while Israel go to Macedonia in the other two matches in the group but all eyes will be on the main match.
Group I
There is a big match in this group too as Euro2016 flops Turkey and Ukraine meet each other. Elsewhere Iceland look to build on their Euro2016 campaign when they entertain fellow Scandinavians Finland with Kosovo hosting Croatia in the other match in the set of fixtures.
Betting
There are two bets I like in this set of matches. I’m avoiding the two matches involving Wales and Ireland as the draw potential in both is too high to tempt me in. In the end I’ve decided to go with a couple of favourites.
Iceland dominated their qualifying group for the European Championships and they have already picked up a decent draw in Ukraine to begin this one. They are very much a nation on the up but I’m not so sure the same can be said about their opponents Finland. They look like a nation on the decline to me and a failure to beat Kosovo last time out doesn’t inspire confidence. I expect Iceland to see them off and on a -0.75AH they are decent value to do so.
Kosovo won’t be the worst side in these qualifiers but they won’t be the best either and while there are matches they will be competitive in I’m not sure Croatia is one of those. Croatia will be looking for a win here after drawing their opening match with Turkey although they dominated that match and only they will know how they didn’t win.
I’m going to let them off that though because the major leagues hadn’t begun then and so their players were fairly cold. That isn’t the case now. Their star players are up and running and at full steam and they have enough of them to outclass a game but limited Kosovan side.
Tips
HALF WON – Back Iceland (-0.75AH) to beat Finland for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
Back them here:
WON – Back Croatia (-1AH) to beat Kosovo for a 4/10 stake at 1.94 with 188bet
Back them here:
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