Iceland vs Bosnia & Herzegovina prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-09-10 18:45.
With just three points from their five Euro 2024 qualifiers to date, the game’s almost up for Iceland in their quest to secure only a third-ever major tournament appearance. Their misery was compounded by a 3-1 defeat to Luxembourg on Friday, but even as they move nearer to elimination, coach Åge Hareide insists his side will “fight our way to the final race while there is a chance”.
That chance Hareide refers to is growing smaller game-on-game, and at this point it looks like only a miracle can help Iceland claim one of Group J’s two automatic qualification spots. Returning to their native land would ordinarily provide some hope, but with Iceland having lost both their home outings in this qualification cycle, admittedly only by one-goal margins, their prospects don’t seem great.
Neither do Bosnia and Herzegovina’s, as they too find themselves playing catch-up in Group J, although they do at least find themselves three points better off than Iceland (W2, L3). Bosnia do also have the safety net of a play-off spot thanks to their Nations League performances, but it’s fair to say they’d rather qualify automatically, a push that was aided by their 2-1 win against Liechtenstein on Friday.
That unconvincing result was a far cry from the 7-0 thrashing Iceland dished out to the same opponents roughly six months ago, and worryingly for Bosnia, they were the first side to concede against Liechtenstein in over a year! They’ll hope the clean sheet gods are looking down on them for this match and, interestingly, their only shutout from their last six Euro qualifiers (inc play-offs) came against none other than Iceland in a 3-0 win back in March.
Players to watch: Iceland’s promising 20-year-old star Hákon Arnar Haraldsson saw his second senior international goal against Luxembourg accompany a yellow card and he was also cautioned in the reverse H2H. At the other end of the footballing age spectrum, 37-year-old Edin Džeko also netted in his last outing, marking the fourth occasion he has opened the match scoring from his last six goalscoring games at international level.
Hot stat: Bosnia have conceded at least twice in nine of their last ten away Euro qualifiers.