Cyprus vs Bosnia & Herzegovina prediction: EUROPE: World Cup – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-10-08 18:45.
[p]Cyprus are out to salvage some pride in this qualification race for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with visitors Bosnia & Herzegovina currently sitting top of UEFA Group H.[/p]
[p]Match News and Current Form[/p]
[p]Cyprus are all but out of contention to reach the finals, starting this round of fixtures eight points behind the top two with three games remaining. Their campaign has been marred by continued struggles on the international stage, with their success against minnows San Marino their only victory in this qualifying group (D1, L3). Their wait, therefore, for a first-ever appearance at a major tournament will almost certainly go on for at least another two years. [/p]
[p]Bosnia arrive here on 12 points from five games (W4, L1), boasting the best goal difference in the group having scored 11 and conceded just three, including beating Cyprus 2-1 in March. After those strong qualifying results, they are now in a good position to reach their first World Cup finals since 2014, but will be desperate to bounce back in style here after last month’s home defeat to Austria (2-1). [/p]
[p]Head-to-Head History[/p]
[p]Despite their rotten qualifying campaign, Cyprus might take some confidence from their recent competitive history against Bosnia, with wins in two of the previous five matchups (L3). Their last home H2H was back in 2017 (W 3-2). [/p]
[p]Hot Stats and Streaks[/p]
[p]Cyprus have scored exactly two goals in their last three matches as the home side (W2, D1). [/p]
[p]Cyprus have conceded at least once before half-time in four of their last five games. [/p]
[p]Six of Bosnia’s last seven matches have been settled by a one-goal margin at most (W4, D1, L2).[/p]
[p]Before a 6-0 drubbing of minnows San Marino, Bosnia had scored just twice in their four previous away outings.[/p]
[p]Key Players to Watch and Missing Players[/p]
[p]Pieros Sotiriou scored and assisted in that 2017 H2H win for Cyprus and is still competing for the national team, having netted for APOEL last Friday. Ermedin Demirović opened the scoring for Bosnia against Cyprus in March and assisted Edin Džeko in their last match in September against Austria. [/p]
[p]While there does not seem to be any fresh injury news for Cyprus, Haris Hajradinović, who scored and assisted in the last H2H, will be a big miss for Bosnia after sustaining an ACL tear last month. [/p]
[p]For all the latest team news, please check the Flashscore match centre.[/p]
[p]Betting Analysis[/p]
[p]We expect Bosnia’s quality to make the difference here, but it will not be a comfortable victory based on the competitive nature of their recent games, so we predict an away win by a slender one-goal margin. [/p]
[p][i]Author: David H[/i][/p]