The opening round of World Cup Qualifiers in Europe concludes on Tuesday night when the final three groups to get underway do so in what sees plenty of Europe’s heavyweights in action not least France and the Netherlands.
In all there are nine matches with four of them live on our screens in the UK and it should be a decent night of football action to round off this match day.
Group A
When the draw came out and France and the Netherlands were in the same group we knew we were going to get some decent football. France begin their campaign in Belarus with the Netherlands having much the tougher task away to Sweden who will begin life without Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The other match sees Bulgaria hosting Luxembourg.
Group B
The European champions Portugal are in this group and they begin their campaign for the World Cup away to Switzerland. They will have to do it without Ronaldo too which isn’t ideal. Hungary had a good Euro 2016 campaign and they start their qualifying competition away to the Faroe Islands while Andorra host Latvia in the other match.
Group H
On paper this group looks like a walk in the park for Belgium but after a disappointing Euro 2016 campaign and being booed off in a friendly last week all isn’t rosy in that particular garden and it will be interesting to see how they get on in Cyprus on Tuesday night. Bosnia-Herzegovina host Estonia and Gibraltar welcome Greece in the other two matches.
Betting
As with the previous two nights I’m not going mad in this set of fixtures. There are a couple of handicaps which almost tempted me in but I’ve decided to be cautious in the end. Hungary were one of those tempting me but the Faroes aren’t as bad as they once were so I’ll leave that one alone.
The bet that interests me is France away to Belarus. I don’t think Belarus are going to be strong enough to contain this pacey French outfit and the power that the French have in the middle of the park can be telling over the course of the 90 minutes. If there is a weakness in the French side it is defensively but Belarus aren’t the best in forward areas so I don’t see the French being exposed.
It is early in the campaign so I’m not pushing the boat out but I’m really happy to be getting a -1.25 Asian line on the Euro 2016 hosts. I expect them to win and if they do the worst we can do is lose half our money but as with Scotland the other night if the French get ahead early they should really pull away.
Tips
Back France (-1.25AH) to beat Belarus for a 5/10 stake at 1.92 with 888sport
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