Netherlands vs Malta prediction: EUROPE: World Championship – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-06-09 18:45.
[p]The Netherlands never looked in danger during their first FIFA 2026 World Cup qualification (WCQ) opener, dominating the stats sheet on the way to a comfortable 2-0 victory over Finland on Saturday. Now on an eight-game unbeaten run as match favourites (W5, D3) since losing to Austria at Euro 2024, Ronald Koeman’s side need only a repeat performance to defeat Malta. [/p]
[p]Most members of the Dutch squad were not alive when the Oranje last played Malta in October 1995, when they maintained a perfect H2H record that now stands at six wins, 28 goals scored and none conceded. An enormous 163 spots ahead of Malta in FIFA’s world rankings, the Dutch have been especially ruthless at home to opponents currently outside the top 20, winning 30 of their last 31 such matches (D1) – 25 of them by at least a two-goal margin![/p]
[p]Malta’s chances of scoring their first goal against the Netherlands at the seventh attempt appear bleak after they went a fourth consecutive international without finding the net, three of them under current manager Emilio De Leo (D1, L2). At least they managed to finish the match with 11 men on the pitch for the first time in those four games, but registering just one shot on target against 143rd-ranked Lithuania (0-0) does not bode well for the rest of their WCQ campaign.[/p]
[p]The prospect of anything other than a heavy defeat already looks minuscule before even considering Malta’s form on foreign soil, where they have lost seven of their last eight games (W1), beating only 173rd-ranked Andorra in that run and conceding nearly three goals per match across those seven defeats (agg. 1-20). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Virgil van Dijk returns to the home of his first professional club, Groningen, hoping to help his nation record successive clean sheets in competitive action for the first time since November 2023. One of Malta’s star performers against Lithuania was centre-back James Carragher, whose club Wigan conceded no more than one goal in each of their final ten games of the League One season.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: The Netherlands have scored 3+ goals in seven of their last ten wins.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]